
^MX^C^^^"^^^--^ 






MR. COLLINS WHILE HE WAS CONSUL-GENERAL OF THE 
UNITED STATES AT LONDON 



LIFE 



OF 



PATRICK A. COLLINS 



WITH SOME OF HIS MOST NOTABLE 
PUBLIC ADDRESSES 



WRITTEN, COMPILED, AND EDITED 
BY 

M. p. CURRAN 



PRINTED AT 

THE NORWOOD PRESS 

NORWOOD, MASS., U.S.A. 

1906 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two Conies Received 
JUL 6 1906 

i_CoDyri^M Entry 



CLASS a XXc No^ 



COPY B. 



Copyright, 1906, 
By M, p. CURRAN. 






ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



TO 

l^iss iHarie Eose Collins 

WHOSE UNFLAGGING INTEREST AND WARM 

SYMPATHY HAVE BEEN SO HELPFUL 

TO ME IN MY WORK 

THIS VOLUME IS 

DEDICATED 



He was a man "swift in his work" like one 

Of whom the prophet spake, whose eyes could see 

Visions denied to us ; and who could hear 

Music ineffable of all the spheres — 

Who with a soul secure in its desire 

To reach the eternal heights, knowing no check 

To keep his eagle pinions from the sun — 

Went fearless, circling upward, higher and higher, 

And while we, breathless watching, gazed aloft, 

Swept on beyond our view. 






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AUTOGRAPH LETTER FROM FORMER PRESIDEXT, 
GROVER CLEVELAND 



FOREWORD 

IT is extremely difficult, if indeed it be not impossible, to 
write the life story of a departed friend without being 
influenced more or less, in estimating his character, by 
tender and affectionate memories which impart to the work a 
flavor of eulogy untempered by criticism. However diligently 
and dutifufly one may strive, in such circumstances, to avoid 
descending "below the dignity of history," the personal 
equation is sure to enter in, and the good qualities of the sub- 
ject will tower high above any shortcomings that may ob- 
trude upon the writer's thoughts or recollection. But 
inasmuch as so eminent an authority as Carlyle concedes 
the usefulness, nay the necessity, of seeing a man's good 
qualities first in order to form a right judgment, lesser 
mortals may take comfort in the reflection that no great 
violence is done to historic truth if biography be tinged 
slightly by the genial rays of friendly bias. 

It was my privilege to have known Patrick A. Collins for 
over a quarter of a century. During that period our personal, 
social, and political relations were very close and intimate. 
When he was out of the country or in Washington attending 
to his congressional duties, we were in touch through free 
and uninterrupted correspondence ; when he was in Boston 
we saw each other not less than twice each week, usually 
oftener. I was in daily contact with him for nearly four 
years during his service as mayor of Boston. My oppor- 
tunities therefore for observing his personal characteristics 
and the bent of his thoughts were exceptional. 

In the pages that follow I have not attempted to analyze 
his character, or to form an estimate of the possible influ- 
ences which his notable career may exercise upon his own 
generation or upon those to come. I have contented myself 
with supplying the materials upon which those who read 
may base their own estimate. His life activities cover a 
remarkably wide range of endeavor. Truly may it be said 
of him that in his time he played many parts. He was errand 



vi FOREWORD 

boy, office boy, farm hand, coal miner, engineer, upholsterer, 
state legislator, lawyer, national legislator, administrator, 
and executive. He achieved a large measure of success in 
all these diversified employments and callings, and this 
measure increased as his character developed, as his faculties 
matured, and as opportunity for concentration came to him. 
To quote Emerson, one of his favorite authors : — 

" Born for success he seemed, 
With grace to win, with heart to hold." 

Of all the qualities which distinguished him and made 
him conspicuous, as he developed, the highest and foremost 
was his rugged honesty, which Shakespeare terms the richest 
form of legacy. He was scrupulously honest in his dealings 
with his fellows ; he was strictly honest in his relation to his 
clients ; he was morally honest ; he was intellectually honest. 
Honesty was an instinct with him ; it was inwoven with the 
very fibre of his nature. When he was ten years of age he 
insisted upon returning a dime which a Chelsea shopkeeper 
had given him in excess of what belonged to him as "change." 
The man protested indignantly and vehemently that no 
mistake had been made in the transaction. He was talking 
with a more important customer and disliked to be inter- 
rupted. "Go along, little Paddy boy," he said, "we make 
no mistakes here. You must have lost what is missing." 

"But there is nothing missing," said the boy. "You 
gave me too much." 

The shopkeeper, not relishing the exposure of his cash 
error and disliking to be lectured in honesty by a "Paddy" 
boy, took the coin from his hand and said: "I suppose you 
were afraid of the priest; that's why you gave it up. But 
he wouldn't know unless you told him." 

"I was not afraid of anybody but God," was the sharp 
reply. "He knew." 

Later in life, while he was in Congress, his vote and his 
influence were thrown in favor of a certain measure, the 
advocates of which had not tried to "reach" him at all. 
After the bill had been passed a representative of those in- 
terests offered him $10,000 in cash as a recognition of his 
disinterested and successful advocacy of it. He refused the 
gift just as he declined to profit by a Chelsea merchant's 



FOREWORD vii 

error thirty years before. In one case the sum involved 
was ten cents; in the other it was $10,000. The principle 
was the same. God knew ! 

Mr. Collins was a lawyer by choice ; he was a politician 
through circumstances. When he was working at the bench 
by day and studying diligently by night to acquire an edu- 
cation which was denied him in early life, his ambition was 
to win a high place in the legal profession. He could not 
be content with a low place in any walk of life. This im- 
pulse grew stronger even after he had had a taste of politi- 
cal life, for he was in politics before he was in the law. 
When he consented to go to Congress it was with a mental 
reservation that he would retire at the end of his second 
term and resume his law practice. The only committee 
work he relished while in Congress was that which came to 
him as a member of the judiciary committee. For six years 
he was a member of that committee, and through his experi- 
ence there he acquired a knowledge of federal, international, 
and interstate law second to none. It was his settled pur- 
pose to remain, while serving as a member of Congress, in 
the atmosphere of his profession. He often said that his 
congressional experience had broadened his range of vision 
and materially improved his equipment for his work as a 
lawyer. He always regarded that service as a mere incident, 
as a short gap in his professional career. 

Some of his contemporaries at the bar have contended, 
since his death, and with no apparent or even suspected 
purpose to detract from his worth or high character as a 
public man, that he was not a great lawyer. They justify 
this contention by pointing to the fact that his political ser- 
vice diverted his attention from his legal practice, and handi- 
capped him in the race for supremacy or eminence. But 
it must be conceded that while he was in Congress he was 
adding to his store of legal lore by constant study of inter- 
state and national law, and that while he was serving as 
Consul-general at London he was learning international law 
and familiarizing himself with international practice. A 
great lawyer is not necessarily the man who has the largest 
or the most lucrative practice. If he were then some of our 
busy corporation attorneys would be in the foremost ranks 
of the great. Nor can it be admitted that the lawyer with 
the longest list of clients is alone great, otherwise the attorneys 



vui FOREWORD 

who daily try numerous cases of tort in our minor courts 
would monopolize the designation. A great lawyer should 
be a man well-grounded in the principles of law ; he should 
be a man of unswerving integrity and a high sense of honor ; 
he should be a man instinct with justice, fairness, and lofti- 
ness of purpose. Hardly any one of the recognized profes- 
sions brings its members into more delicate and intimate 
relations with the public than that of the law. The lawyer is 
the repository often of family secrets and business secrets 
confided to no one else. He frequently holds the honor, 
the solvency, the credit, and the very liberty of his client 
in his keeping. 

Mr. Collins was well-grounded in the law. Like most of 
the learning which he acquired, his legal learning came from 
a systematic course of self-culture, wide reading, and pro- 
found study. His knowledge of law, like his knowledge of 
history and his intimacy with the standard authors, rested 
upon a sound and strong foundation. It was perfected by 
the polish of a university course, but its enduring strength 
lay in the solid base of self-education and self-training, which 
years of untiring industry, of willing sacrifice, and laudable 
ambition had set up. 

When Lawyer Pleydell took Colonel Mannering into 
his library, which was well stocked with the best treatises 
on history and the choicest collection of classical as well as 
of legal tomes, he said to his guest who had instinctively 
passed favorable comment upon the variety as well as the 
excellence of the contents of the shelves: "These are my 
tools of trade. A lawyer without history or literature is 
a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some 
knowledge of these he may venture to call himself an archi- 
tect." Measured by this standard Mr. Collins might safely 
call himself an architect of the very first class, for he had 
acquired by omnivorous reading a comprehensive knowledge 
of history, biography, philosophy, fiction, and the very best 
treatises on the literature of science. Moreover, he had 
delved deeply into the ancient classics, from which he ex- 
tracted many rare and valuable nuggets of wit and wisdom. 
He never read for mere amusement. Every book he perused 
increased his store of erudition. 

Much stress has been laid by public men and leading 
newspapers, since his death, upon Mr. Collins' s fame as a 



FOREWORD ix 

wit; and there has been a demand for a collection of his 
sayings. I am obliged to confess my inability to comply 
with this popular desire. Those who knew him intimately 
will recall readily his alertness of mind and the many quaint 
expressions which he used in private conversation. But a 
collection of these or any considerable portion of them would 
be impossible. Besides, the circumstances under which 
they were employed to "point a moral or adorn a tale" 
could not be reproduced. And what is even a rare stone 
without its fit setting? Mr. Collins was a philosopher 
rather than a wit. True, he had a faculty of effecting a 
quick turn of speech, the rapidity of which startled and 
thrilled his hearers, while it sharply accentuated the point 
he wished to make. Occasionally this mental manoeuvre 
had a dash of wit in it, but nearly always the serious and 
practical side predominated. This faculty was rarely, if 
ever, discoverable in his prepared speeches. It found 
illustration almost exclusively in his extemporaneous efforts, 
and on occasions calling for prompt and decisive action. 
Lowell says that "it is by presence of mind in untried 
emergencies that the native metal of a man is tested." 
When an active and influential labor agitator and leader 
undertook to disrupt a state Democratic convention at 
Worcester by pronouncing a eulogy upon the nominated 
candidate of the opposite party, while shouts of approval 
and of hostility threw the entire body into chaos and con- 
fusion, Mr. Collins strode out to the front of the platform, 
and the warring factions were still. The delegates knew 
instinctively that something out of the ordinary routine was 
coming. A crisis had been precipitated which might seriously 
affect the fortunes of the knightly young candidate of the 
party — William Eustis Russell. In a voice whose silvery 
tones rang clear and penetrating through the rafters of the 
hall, he flayed the man who sounded the discordant note as 
Cicero flayed Catiline. He drew back the veil that hid the 
motive of the man's action and laid bare the underlying 
purpose; then, after branding him as "a working-man who 
never worked," he tossed him into the arena to be dealt with 
according to his deserts. The wild outburst of applause 
and cheers which the episode drew forth attested the con- 
vention's hearty approval of the brief but crushing philippic, 
and the popular confidence in its brilliant author. Mr. 



X FOREWORD 

Russell was nominated unanimously, and he was elected 
at the polls in November. 

During a committee recess some years ago, Mr. Collins 
was introduced to the Rev. A. A. Miner, D.D., against whose 
side of a mooted question he was acting as counsel. Dr. 
Miner was a Universalist minister, and one of the foremost 
advocates of prohibition in the state. Wherever he went 
he unremittingly assailed the "demon Rum," and drew 
piteous pictures of the evils which it entailed upon humanity. 
Mr. Collins shook the doctor's hand warmly, and turning 
to the man who had given the introduction, he said: "Dr. 
Miner would be a very worthy citizen, and a great power 
in the community if he would only leave rum alone." Dr. 
Miner joined heartily in the general laugh which the little 
sally drew from the group of listeners, and thus bore testi- 
mony to his ability "to appreciate a good thing even when 
he was getting the worst of it." 

On the occasion of President Roosevelt's first tour of 
New England in 1902, he was entertained informally by 
Governor Crane during a brief stay in Boston. Mr. Collins, 
who was then mayor of the city, agreed to attend a small 
dinner party in his honor at a leading hotel, although he was 
suffering keenly from rheumatism at the time. He left the 
dining hall early and proceeded to his room. After his 
guests had separated for the evening, the governor with his 
customary kindliness called upon Mr. Collins to inquire 
after his health and comfort. Incidentally he and the mayor 
discussed the occurrences of the evening. "What do you 
think of the President, Mr. Mayor," said the governor. 

Mr. Collins replied: "I don't know any man of my ac- 
quaintance with whom I would rather go fishing; but I'd 
take mighty good care not to let him steer the boat." 

A few years later Mr. Crane had occasion as a senator 
to realize the force of this little mot, and to leave the boat 
temporarily while the President was steering, with Tillman 
of South Carolina acting as deck hand. 

Mr. Collins's Democracy was not merely a profession 
of political faith ; it was a fixed and immutable conviction. 
He held that Jefferson was to Democracy what Paul was to 
Christianity. Both he regarded as men of transcendent 
genius, and without peers as expounders of fundamental 
principles. He was proud to be a Christian, and to follow 



FOREWORD xi 

Paul in spiritual affairs; he was equally proud to be a 
Democrat, and to absorb from the writings of Jefferson that 
faith in the people which is the essence of Democracy. In 
1902 the German government offered him a decoration of 
a high order on account of the courtesies which, as chief 
executive of the city, he had extended to the Emperor's 
brother. Prince Henry of Prussia. To the German consul 
who made the offer officially he said: ''I fully appreciate 
the honor which the tender of this distinction conveys, but 
I feel that I cannot accept it. During my whole life I have 
been preaching Democracy in opposition to the form of 
government under which the German empire is now happily 
flourishing. I could not without self-stultification wear a 
decoration which would give the lie to my convictions and 
precepts. I say this with all proper respect for the Em- 
peror and with a due appreciation of the honor which he so 
graciously offers through you. Please convey my senti- 
ments so that there shall be no note of disrespect or un- 
friendliness. It is simply a matter of personal conviction." 
A few months later a similar offer was made by the late 
Duncan Bailly-Blanchard, consul of the French Republic 
in Boston, on behalf of his government. In considering 
the matter Mr. Collins said: "France is a republic, a de- 
mocracy. I would be proud to wear a decoration from a 
sister republic." He was made an officer of the Legion of 
Honor, and proud he was to wear the red button of his rank 
on formal occasions. 

Mr. Collins while mayor was always conscious of the dig- 
nity of his office. To be the executive head of a metropolitan 
city of six hundred thousand inhabitants, — a city of wealth, 
refinement, and culture, — he regarded as a distinction. His 
settled purpose was not to belittle the position by attendance 
at every local dancing party, club dinner, or card party to 
which he might be and to which he was regularly invited. 
He attended only social functions with which the city's 
interests were linked in some way. Participation in mis- 
cellaneous social affairs might, and doubtless would, bring 
popularity, but that consideration did not affect him so long 
as he harbored the opinion that such participation might 
detract from the dignity of the office he held. Besides, he 
loved the easy comfort of his home, the companionship of his 
books, and association with his family. He could be found 



xii FOREWORD 

almost every evening in his cosey library, reading some 
standard work of philosophy, fiction, or history, or studying 
out some intricate problem of municipal government. 

I have said that he had no intellectual slant toward 
humor or wit as a feature of his public addresses. He read 
a few humorous works like the writings of ''Mark Twain," 
"Artemus Ward," and "Mr. Dooley," and he enjoyed 
them. But nowhere in his written or prepared addresses 
do we find any attempt at humorous writing. He was in- 
tensely serious, and although frequently spurred on by the 
congenital impetuosity of his Celtic nature, he was conspicu- 
ously conservative. More than that : he had a vein of gloomi- 
ness, a sort of penchant for the sombre and sad things of life 
that seemed out of keeping with his reputation, and with the 
knowledge of his traits that his friends possessed. His favor- 
ite poem, "He who died at Azan," had the flavor of Oriental 
gloom. Among his papers was a collection, carefully made 
and securely kept, of pathetic stories published occasionally 
by the Pall Mall Gazette. These he read at times with evi- 
dent appreciation and pleasure. He enjoyed the stately 
prose and the rhythmic and profound philosophy of Emerson, 
whom he set first among the brilliant group of contem- 
poraneous writers who gave lustre to Boston as the centre 
of American literature in the nineteenth century. How he 
loved to quote these lines from "The Problem ": — 

"The hand that rounded Peter's dome 
And groined the aisles of Christian Rome 
Wrought in a sad sincerity ; 
Himself from God he could not free; 
He builded better than he knew ; 
The conscious stone to beauty grew." 

And yet in small social gatherings of an informal nature, 
where congenial spirits assembled, where quip and jest 
abounded, his ready wit enlivened the circle. It was not 
studied or built up ; it flashed like an electric spark, and was 
gone. Hundreds of men living to-day on both sides of the 
Atlantic Ocean have keen recollections of scenes like these 
where he ruled and dominated the situation by sheer force of 
his Celtic genius. They will also remember that he was more 
of a philosopher than a wit. Even in the few familiar epi- 
sodes already mentioned here, his philosophy predominates. 



FOREWORD xiii 

He loved to read Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas pere, 
and Balzac, because they pictured French life and French 
manners so artistically and so accurately. Sienckiewicz's 
stories of ancient Poland had a fascination for him, dark 
and gloomy as was their setting. He read Ruskin, Carlyle, 
Darwin, and Gibbon for English history, English science, 
and English philosophy. As in the case of Pleydell his 
library was his workshop, and his books, numerous, well 
selected, and rare, were his tools of trade. It was in their 
companionship that he found his keenest enjoyment. It was 
from their rich stores of wisdom, erudition, and ornate dic- 
tion that he derived the faculty and the ability to express his 
thoughts with precision and grace, to say what he desired 
to say with exquisite nicety and with artistic finish. It was 
this quality which made his addresses so pleasing and so 
keenly relished. 

Let those who think that it would have been better for 
his fame and fortune had he devoted himself exclusively 
to the practice of the law reflect upon what he achieved 
as a public ofhcial. Mr. Collins was bigger and broader 
than a profession or a party. It would have been impossible 
to circumscribe his talents or to limit his mental activities 
to any single line of endeavor. His sphere of intellectual 
effort and ambition was broad enough to include the uni- 
verse. He stood for humanity. He thought and spoke for 
the people: for the mass against the class, for the humble 
against the great and mighty, for the down-trodden against 
the oppressor. But there was naught of the demagogue in 
his make-up ; he believed in fair play for all. He stood for 
justice. 

It has been my purpose in writing and compiling the 
subsequent pages, not only to present the life story and life- 
work of Mr. Collins, but to offer a historical review of the 
political events and movements in which he took an active 
and leading part. In following out this plan many details 
and minor circumstances of his life have been omitted. I 
have passed over trifling incidents, a multiplicity of which 
were available. Their inclusion in the volume would un- 
necessarily burden and distend it without any compensating 
advantages. I prefer to deal with the broader field of na- 
tional and international history, and to give him, if possible, 
his proper place among those who made that history. 



xiv FOREWORD 

The political history of the United States from 1876 
until 1906 is crowded with stirring incidents and fateful 
episodes and epochs. Mr. Collins was a factor in many, 
if not most, of those. He is universally credited with com- 
passing the election of a President of the Republic, by check- 
ing a stampede that no other man could check. A brief 
speech made at a convention in Worcester, to which allusion 
has been made already, made the election of William Eustis 
Russell as governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts 
possible. And soon after his return from London he de- 
livered an address in Faneuil Hall which prevented the defeat 
of Mayor Quincy through a foolish rift in the party ranks. 
It is conceded by competent observers, therefore, that his 
genius as an orator and the high regard in which he was 
held by his fellow-Democrats in the nation, the state, and the 
city, elected a President of the United States, a governor of 
Massachusetts, and a mayor of Boston at critical stages in 
contests for these positions. 

To afford an adequate idea of his contribution to the 
cause of Irish progress toward self-government during nearly 
forty years of earnest activity, it was deemed essential that 
a cursory sketch of the social, industrial, and political con- 
ditions existing in Ireland during and prior to that period 
should be given. This, I feel confident, will lead to a better 
understanding of the issues involved and the sacrifices of 
life, money, and time which were made in the cause of 
human liberty and the emancipation of a race. It will also 
help to explain the meaning of Mr. Redmond's assertion 
on the day of Mr. Collins's death, that not only in the higher 
political and party circles in Ireland would be found mourn- 
ing and grief over the great loss sustained, but in the cabins 
of the poor, away in the sparsely settled farming districts 
of the country. 

Thus it will be seen that two continents joined in mourn- 
ing for the death of this man who had no birthright of power 
or position, who was driven from his native land by mis- 
government, who won a high place among men of alien 
blood, and who left as a priceless legacy to the struggling 
youth of all races, classes, and creeds the example of an 
honored name, a record for high achievement in spite of 
adverse conditions, and a reputation for honesty, probity, 
and justice, which will endure so long as the memory of his 



FOREWORD XV 

deeds and of his lofty character lasts. He was indeed a 
unique figure in the public life of the nation of his adoption. 
He was intensely Irish in sentiment, and passionately de- 
voted to the cause of his native country. Yet no man of his 
time, or of any time, could excel or exceed him in the genu- 
ineness of his Americanism. The best class of the native 
American stock respected his Irish patriotism, because they 
knew he was honest in it as he was honest in everything, 
and because they knew also that his love for his adopted 
country was equally genuine and equally sincere. 

High and lofty as was his status as a public man, it was 
no higher than his character as a private citizen. The 
virtues which illumined his career as a statesman shone 
with added lustre in the domestic circle. Here he strongly 
accentuated the poet's dictum that — 

"The primal duties shine aloft like stars." 

Here the impress of his character was sensibly felt. His 
only son displayed on the occasion of his father's untimely 
death in Virginia many of the strong, manly qualities which 
came to him by inheritance. Two cultivated daughters, 
passionately devoted to him, shared with their gifted mother 
the poignant grief which his demise brought to a home of 
culture and refinement — a home which had lost forever its 
prop and mainstay and its chief adornment. This grief 
was shared by the community which he had served so loy- 
ally and so faithfully, and by thousands upon thousands of 
men of his race and political creed the world over. In 
bringing this cursory review of his career to a close, I may 
quote the following lines from Pope, which describe some 
of his more striking characteristics accurately : — 

"Statesman, yet friend to truth! of soul sincere, 
In action faithful, and in honor clear; 
Who broke no promise, served no private end, 
Who gained no title, and who lost no friend." 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I 

PAGES 

The Collins Family — O'Connell's Prophecy — Ireland's Con- 
dition UNDER Penal Laws — The Famine of i 846-1 849 and 
ITS Causes and Effects — Collins arrives in Boston — 
Know-nothingism Rampant — In the Ohio Coal-mines — At 
THE Upholsterer's Bench i-ij 

CHAPTER II 

The Fenian Movement in Ireland and America — Collins be- 
comes A Leader, an Orator, and a Polemical Writer — 
Practising what he Preached — The Ivory Case . 16-31 

CHAPTER III 

Mr. Collins as a Lawyer— His First Client — He enters 
American Politics — Representative and Senator in the 
State Legislature — Judge-advocate General in the State 
Militia — The National Campaign of 1876 — He becomes a 
Leader of the National Democracy .... 32-45 

CHAPTER IV 

The Land-league Agitation on Both Sides of the Atlantic — 
Collins and Parnell as Leaders of a Great Agrarian 
Movement — Rise and Growth of the Parliamentary Party 
— An Ovation to Collins in Ireland .... 46-67 

CHAPTER V 

Mr. Collins in Congress — Some of the Measures which he 
Advocated — His Dislike for Washington Life and Con- 
gressional Service — Anecdotes and Incidents . . 68-81 

CHAPTER VI 

The Campaign of 1884 — Cleveland and Collins Confer — The 
Great Albany Speech — The Butler Campaign and its 
Meaning — The Contests in Massachusetts . . . 82-96 



xviii CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VII 

PAGES 

The Relations between Collins aj^d Cleveland — The Story 

ABOUT THE CABINET IN 1 885 — HoW SECRETARY EnDICOTT WAS 

Appointed — The Collectorship Fight — Other Incidents 97-113 

CHAPTER VIII 

As Consul-general at London — His Life and Labors at the 
British Capital — Speeches which he made and Functions 
which he Attended — Some Side-lights from his own Pen 

— His Literary and Artistic Entourage . . . 1 14-129 

CHAPTER IX 

Mr. Collins as Mayor of Boston — His Methods of Admin- 
istration — His Watchfulness over the City Treasury 

— Some of his More Notable Vetoes — His Relations 
with his Subordinates — His Contempt for Meanness in 
Politics 130-144 

CHAPTER X 

Mr. Collins as an Anti-Imperialist — His Love for Human 
Freedom — Address before the Democracy of New Jersey 
ON THE Theft of Puerto Rico and the Philippines — Other 
Addresses on the Same Topic 145-154 

CHAPTER XI 

Death and Burial — Services at the Cathedral of the Holy 
Cross — Extraordinary Crowd in and around the Church 

— Expressions of Sorrow from All Quarters of the 
Country and from Abroad — A Public Memorial Assured — 
Remarkable Responses to Appeal for Funds — What Pub- 
lic Men thought of the Mayor 155-171 

CHAPTER XII 

Expressions of Commendation by the Press of the United 
States and Ireland — An Unbroken Stream of Good Opin- 
ions AND Praise for the Superb Moral and Intellectual 
Qualities of Mr. Collins 172-187 

CHAPTER XIII 

Memorial Meeting of the Bar Association — Addresses by 
the Corporation Counsel, the Hon. John D. Long, the 
Hon. Winslow Warren, John P. Leahy, Esq., and Judge 
James B. Richardson 188-199 



CONTENTS xix 

CHAPTER XIV 

PAGES 

The City's Memorial — Official Recognition given to the 
Memory of Mr. Collins — Addresses by Thomas J. Gargan, 
Rabbi Fleischer, Commander Wolff of the G. A. R., Gen- 
eral Charles W. Bartlett, and Others . . . 200-214 



APPENDIX 

CHAPTER I 

A Plea for France— The Franco-Prussian War and its Cause 

— What the French People did for America and what 

THEY attempted FOR IRELAND . - 217-221 

CHAPTER II 

The Famous Albany Speech — Mr. Collins fully acquits Mr. 
Cleveland on all the Charges preferred against Him by 
Political Foes — The Blaine Method of Campaigning — 
The " Irish Vote " 222-230 

CHAPTER III 

Speech as Presiding Officer at the St. Louis National Demo- 
cratic Convention in 1888 — An Elaborate Exposition of 
Democratic Principles 231-237 

CHAPTER IV 

Address at Cooper Union, New York, in the Campaign of 
1888 — How THE Republican Party broke Faith with the 
People — The Iniquities of Tariff Taxation . . 238-246 

CHAPTER V 

Mr. Collinses Tribute to the Memory of his Friend John 
Boyle O'Reilly — A Literary Mosaic — A Poem in Prose 

— A Touching Story of the Affection Two Strong Men 
BORE to Each Other 247-248 

CHAPTER VI 

Oration on the Voyage of Discovery of Christopher Colum- 
bus—A Brilliant Sketch of the Events anteceding the 
Marvellous Undertaking — What resulted from the Dis- 
covery . 249-256 



XX CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VII 

PAGES 

Address before the Harvard Democratic Club in Tremont 
Temple in 1892 — Tribute to Cleveland and Russell — A 
Great Demonstration — The Force Bill Denounced . 257-262 

CHAPTER VIII 
Jeffersonian Democracy Defined and Analyzed — What it 

MEANS TO THE REPUBLIC — ThE PRINCIPLES OF JEFFERSON AND 

Hamilton Contrasted 263-267 

CHAPTER IX 

Mr. Collins seconds the Nomination of Cleveland, at Chi- 
cago in 1892, IN A Brief but Effective Speech — He 
nominates the Hon. Richard Olney at St. Louis, in 
1904 268-271 

INDEX 273-276 



Life of Patrick A. Collins 



CHAPTER I 

The Collins Family — O'Connell's Prophecy — Ireland's Condition 
UNDER Penal Laws — The Famine of 1846-1849 and its Causes and 
Effects — Collins arrives in Boston — Know-nothingism Rampant 
— In the Ohio Coal-mines — At the Upholsterer's Bench. 

IN a farmer's house in Ballinafauna, an eminent Irish 
leader and statesman was stroking the head of a boy 
of two, while the boy's parents looked on with pardon- 
able pride. ''One day," the distinguished visitor said, 
*'he will be a great man and he will give of his time and 
his talents to the service of his bleeding country." Was 
there the spirit of prophecy here, or did the laying on of 
hands by Daniel O'Connell stimulate the brain of Pat- 
rick Andrew Collins and fill his soul with that love of human 
liberty which was the dominant trait of his character? 

Ballinafauna is a townland lying outside of Fermoy in 
the county of Cork. Here Bartholomew Collins tilled a 
leased farm on the vast estate of Lord Mount-Cashell. 
This farm contained nearly two hundred acres, and was 
situated on a high plateau overlooking the picturesque 
Blackwater Valley, and affording an extensive view of the 
adjacent counties of Waterford and Limerick and of the 
rugged peaks and high ranges of the Galtee Mountains in 
Tipperary. In a stone house near the highest spot on the 
farm Patrick A. Collins was born on March 12, 1844. His 
father was a man of good repute among his neighbors. To 
him, as arbitrator, many disputes between the smaller 
farmers and cottiers were referred for adjudication ; and in 
settling them he gave evidence of the possession of sound 
judgment, common sense, and a spirit of fair play and justice 
— qualities which are too often lacking in the judicial 



2 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

tribunals established by the Crown. That he was a man 
of more than local fame, the visit of O'Connell to his house 
clearly proves. It proves also that he was held in favor 
by the great Liberator and his trusted lieutenants, who con- 
ducted the memorable agitation which forced Peel and 
Wellington to abrogate the civil disabilities, to which Irish 
Catholics had been so long subjected. Besides being a 
patriotic Nationalist, enjoying the confidence and regard of 
his country's chosen champions, he was a man of scholarly 
attainments. Several clever translations from the Gaelic, 
in verse and prose, were made by him in his hours of leisure. 
Other writings of a varied and somewhat fugitive character 
were found after his death, a fact that proved him to be a 
man of intellectual ability and some cultivation. 

The Collinses were among the oldest and most respected 
residents in the neighborhood. They were farmers of the 
better class ; they were patriots also. In the persistent and 
protracted struggles of the Irish people for liberty and 
nationality during three or four generations, they had taken 
a conspicuous part and had borne their share of the priva- 
tions and hardships which such fidelity to principle usually 
entailed. Mr. Collins, therefore, had inherited from his 
forbears the devotion to country which grew to a passion in 
his mature years, and which impelled him to ignore social, 
personal, and political consequences in his advocacy of 
liberty and justice to his native land. 

Farming in Ireland under the laws then in force was nec- 
essarily a precarious business. There was little incentive 
for enterprise, thrift, or intelligent foresight in the conditions 
governing the relations between landlord and tenant. All 
the interest the landlord permitted himself to harbor or 
cherish in respect to his leased property was confined solely 
to the question whether his agents were able to collect the 
rent promptly. The tenant knew that if he failed to pay 
whatever the landlord chose to fix as a rental, he would be 
dispossessed. He knew, moreover, that in proportion as he 
improved the holding and made the land more productive 
and the buildings more tidy and attractive, his rent would be 
increased. He was working exclusively for the landlord. 
Not only was the rent increased in proportion to the enhance- 
ment of the property's value, but if he should give up the 
farm at the expiration of his lease, or if he should be sum- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 3 

marily evicted meanwhile, no allowance whatever would be 
made in the final settlement for any improvements effected. 
This system, devised by a parliament of landlords to place 
the Irish tenantry in absolute subjection and vassalage, 
simply put a premium upon laziness and indifference. The 
tenant might get a living for himself and his family by hard 
work, but if the crops failed, they might starve for all the 
landlord cared; and starve they would. He wanted his 
rent, and whether one tenant or another paid it made no 
difference to him ; but it must be paid. 

Bartholomew Collins died in 1847 from an attack of pneu- 
monia. He left little of the world's goods to his bereaved 
family ; and none of his children were old enough to continue 
his work on the farm. Throughout Ireland the gaunt form 
of famine stalked abroad, as yet unchecked by parliamentary 
grants or private largess. The potato crop had failed in 
1846, and the poor peasantry and the small farmers, who 
depended upon this staple for sustenance, were forced to 
emigrate or die of starvation in the ditches and highways. 
Then it was that the world obtained a clearer and closer 
view of the vicious system of land tenure, which made the 
tenant farmer the slave of his alien landlord. For non- 
payment of rents thousands of families were ruthlessly evicted 
from their cabin homes and condemned to death as surely 
as if they had heard the sentence pronounced by a black- 
capped judge. As the famine progressed, contagious dis- 
eases followed rapidly in its wake, and from both causes 
over half a million people perished.' Meanwhile, the 
emigrant ships carried to America hundreds of thousands 
of young men and women, who bore with them to the new 
world grim recollections of the ghastly scenes which they 
had witnessed, and from which they had escaped. The dis- 
tressing impressions made upon their youthful minds by these 
grewsome pictures they handed down to their children and 
grandchildren. The seed thus sown has borne abundant 
fruit ; there are in the United States to-day millions of people 
of Irish birth and lineage who have learned by tradition and 

^ From the reports of the census commissioners, the prison war- 
dens, and special agents of the government it appears that over six hun- 
dred thousand people died of hunger, exposure, disease, "old age and 
infirmity and debility," and bad sanitation in prisons and workhouses 
during the famine period. 



4 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

through the medium of family legends the sombre story of 
Ireland's oppression — the sad tale of social, industrial, and 
religious persecution and of brutal eviction and maltreat- 
ment at the hands of merciless foes. And they have long 
since resolved that, so long as England persists in denying 
full justice to the Irish people, just so long will they and their 
descendants thwart by every available means her aspira- 
tions for '*an alliance of the English-speaking races," or 
for any other scheme of cooperation designed to promote 
her political or industrial development. 

Patrick A. Collins knew nothing by experience or observa- 
tion of the evil conditions which blighted the land of his 
forefathers. He was less than four years of age when his 
brave mother disposed of her equity in the lease of her hus- 
band's farm and, gathering her children about her, fled to 
America to begin a new life in a new land. But as he grew 
up he learned the story of Ireland's wrongs at his mother's 
knee, where he had learned his prayers. It made him a 
Fenian before he was twenty-one, and enlisted his support 
for every constitutional movement in behalf of Irish liberty 
that was inaugurated during the remainder of his life. 

From 1865 to 1867 he was one of the most effective 
writers and speakers in the Fenian organization in the 
United States. When the cause met with disaster in the 
abortive invasion of Canada, he retired from Irish politics 
as an active force ; but he watched anxiously for the dawn 
of a new day and the coming of a new leadership in Ireland, 
around whose standard the determined sons of the Gael 
could rally for another attack upon the intrenched garrison 
of Irish landlordism. 

And so when Michael Davitt visited America in 1880, to 
test the temper and try the spirit of the Irish race, he found 
an eager and willing ally in Patrick A. Collins. It was then 
that the Land League was launched as an educational organ- 
ization, the avowed purpose of which was to enlighten the 
civilized world with respect to the blighting system of British 
rule in Ireland. The first business in hand was to prevent 
a recurrence of the awful experiences of 1846- 1848. Fam- 
ine again threatened the island, owing to defective crops and 
the rack-renting policy of the landowners. Parnell, the 
new leader of the Irish party at Westminster, followed 
Davitt, and in his tour of the United States he gave the 



HOUSE IN BALLINAFAUNA WHERE MR. COLLINS 
WAS BORN 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 5 

strongest guarantee that if the impending peril were averted 
by the generosity of America and Australia, Ireland would 
not again appeal for pecuniary aid; she would break the 
hold of alien landlordism and give the tenant farmers pos- 
session of the land which they tilled. Parnell came fresh 
from the parliamentary arena in London, where he had 
won several signal victories over the coercionists then in 
control of the government. By agility, alertness, and con- 
summate skill as a tactician, he had fought the leaders of 
the House of Commons to a standstill. Availing himself 
of the established rules of procedure, he blocked all legisla- 
tion for England, Scotland, and Wales, pending the granting 
of his demand for a hearing of Ireland's grievances. To 
quote a line from Wendell Phillips's speech in Music Hall, 
he had "made John Bull listen." 

In 1 88 1 Mr. Collins became president of the League, and 
during his incumbency of the office over $300,000 was sub- 
scribed by the organization for the relief of the suffering 
tenantry and for agitation purposes. This was the answer 
of the Irish exiles and their sons to the challenge issued by a 
coercionist government. It rang in clear tones and with 
awful meaning in the halls and lobbies of Westminster, and 
it awakened the Irish people at home to a realizing sense of 
their power and their opportunities. A new Ireland had 
sprung up beyond the seas, composed of freemen who had 
learned by experience the value of liberty, and who were 
willing and eager to help their kindred to achieve it. Sump- 
tuary laws could not affect or reach them ; coercion could 
not hamper or restrain them ; no alien landlord could tighten 
his grip upon their throats. They were free — free to 
think, and speak, and act. They were led by able, earnest, 
determined men, whose fathers had felt the lash of British 
oppression and the scourge of inequitable legislation. And 
the tallest of all these leaders, the man whose skilled hand 
and clear head guided and directed these new forces in 
America, was Patrick Andrew Collins, whose greatness and 
whose prowess had been predicted over thirty years before 
by Daniel O'Connell in the Collins homestead at Ballina- 
fauna. 

In his early youth he had listened to the story of English 
misrule in Ireland from his mother's lips. Later on he 
read the history of the crime in books and papers. The 



6 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

epochal persecution of the Irish Catholics, on account of 
their stubborn refusal to become Protestants with Henry 
VIII and Cranmer, Wesley and the other leaders of the 
Reformation fired his young imagination. He perused 
with horror the tales, told by truthful chroniclers, of bribery, 
confiscation of property, exile, and death by the bullet, 
rope, or rapier, as elements in the crusade of proselytism and 
conversion. When the fathers of families were butchered, 
their sons and daughters were sold into slavery, and sent to 
the West India tobacco fields. Over sixty thousand such 
sales were made within twenty years, during this age of 
religious ''reform." But Ireland survived this wave of 
terrorism, and her people clung tenaciously to the religion 
of their fathers. Then came Cromwell, with his torch of 
demolition and destruction. His path through Ireland 
was marked by a trail of blood. Cromwell was to succeed 
where Henry had failed. The Irish must apostatize or 
perish. The first garrisoned city captured was Drogheda, 
a seaport on the coast of Leinster. Reporting his doings 
to Parliament, this gentle missionary of a Christian religion 
wrote: "By God's grace, I believe that not one person 
escaped. When the officers were captured, or when they 
surrendered, they were knocked on the head." Cromwell 
overran the island with his troopers, and after he had silenced 
opposition by fire and sword, he divided the best part of the 
land among his followers, having killed or banished the 
owners and occupants; or, to use his own picturesque ex- 
pression, "having driven them to Connaught or hell." 

Forty years later came the disastrous campaign of James 
II, the defeat at the Boyne River, the rout at Aughrim, the 
long siege, and the broken treaty of Limerick. All these 
dark chapters in Irish history young Collins read with avidity, 
and as he read he resolved to fulfil the promise of O'Con- 
nell's prophecy. And who with a Celtic heart and Celtic 
blood could read them without forming such a resolution? 
Then the grewsome story of the penal days made a deep and 
lasting impression upon his sensitive and receptive nature. 
The priest and the schoolmaster were hunted like wild beasts ; 
for it was a crime against the state to celebrate Mass or 
teach the young. What pictures are called up when one 
reads how the faithful little flocks of scattered Catholics 
repaired by night to mountain fastnesses, where at early 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 7 

dawn services were held, wary sentinels keeping watch for 
the approach of the King's troopers. And the heroic school- 
master 1 He was to be found imparting knowledge, felo- 
niously of course, to a group of children behind a thick 
hedge in some remote spot, into which the "redcoats" 
could not penetrate without being discovered by a watchful 
community. The "hedge school" is a tradition to-day in 
Ireland. Time was when it was the only school available 
to the poor, hunted Catholics. 

But in spite of all these repressive measures, the Irish 
remained unsubdued and unconverted. Their hopes of 
nationhood were uncrushed, and their love for their religion 
was as strong as ever. They refused to become West Brit- 
ons, and they cherished the memory of the days when they 
enjoyed national freedom, when their scholars were the pro- 
foundest and best in Europe, when great statesmen and 
brave soldiers and wise lawgivers shed lustre upon the 
nation. 

O'Connell, in the early twenties, in spite of the tragedies 
of 1798 and 1803, got a quick response to his call for an 
organization to wipe off the statute books of the Kingdom 
the odious laws excluding Catholics from holding public 
office and enjoying the civil rights accorded to subjects 
belonging to other religious denominations. The victory 
which he scored in 1829, when, after seven years of intelli- 
gent agitation, the royal assent was given to the Catholic 
Emancipation Bill, was followed by a strong effort to repeal 
the Union and restore to Ireland her parliamentary indepen- 
dence, of which she had been robbed in 1800 by Castlereagh 
and his cabal of bribers and political buccaneers. His 
methods were similar to those employed in promoting the 
agitation in favor of emancipation. Monster meetings were 
held in various parts of the country ; but when the govern- 
ment realized the growing menace of the movement, the cus- 
tomary tactics of repression and gag-law were employed. The 
meeting at Clontarf , at which two hundred thousand men were 
expected, was "proclaimed," and Mr. O'Connell was arrested 
and thrown into prison. In 1848 the spirit of the people 
again made itself manifest in a firm protest against in- 
justice and misrule; but a premature rebellion led to fur- 
ther slaughter and more coercion. Again in 1865 the vitality 
of the race and its powers of resistance were displayed. But 



8 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

the result of a resort to force was similar to those of former 
periods. With the history of all these periodical tests of 
strength, between crippled Ireland and powerful England, 
young Collins was familiar. He had delved in histories, 
pamphlets, and magazines in the public library to obtain it. 
The example set by the great leaders of the Irish people 
made a deep impression upon his nature, and as soon as he 
grew to man's estate, and for some time previously, he con- 
secrated himself to the national cause. 

Recognizing the value of organization and intelligent 
cooperation he took to the forum and the press to enlighten 
his fellow-exiles, and to point the way which they should 
follow if they would help the people of Ireland to gain their 
liberties. At the age of twenty-two, when he was an up- 
holsterer by trade, he wrote voluminously for the leading 
"Irish" papers in America, always preaching the doctrine 
of united effort, and combating the theories of publicists, 
who would mingle religion with politics. '^Irishmen," 
he wrote on one occasion, "have shed their best blood for 
Catholicity, and will do so again if it be necessary, but the 
cause of Ireland is not a Catholic cause. The great majority 
of Irishmen are sincere Catholics, but many, very many, 
of Ireland's noblest patriots worship at other altars. If we 
make Ireland the battleground for religious feuds again, 
let us forget that we live in an enlightened age, let us strike 
from our calendar of patriot martyrs the names of Wolf 
Tone, Lord Edward Fitzgerald, and Robert Emmett, and a 
thousand others who sacrificed their lives that Ireland might 
be free. The cause of Ireland is the cause of all classes and 
creeds that desire the boon of liberty — physical liberty 
and liberty to worship God according to the promptings of 
their own hearts." Even thus early in his public career, we 
get a clear view of the spirit of broad tolerance, which ani- 
mated his nature and guided his tongue and pen whenever 
there was controversy over the relations between religion 
and politics. 

When Patrick A. Collins was landed in Boston in March, 
1848, at the age of four, the population of the city was about 
one hundred and twenty-seven thousand. Josiah Quincy, 
Jr., was Mayor. George N. Briggs was Governor of the 
Commonwealth, and James K. Polk was President of the 
United States. The country was just passing through a 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 9 

period of natural and healthy expansion, caused by the 
acquisition of contiguous territory. The war with Mexico 
had come to a close, and as a consequence of the prowess of 
American arms the Rio Grande had become the boundary line 
between the United States and Mexico. By the treaty of 
peace negotiated at Guadalupe-Hidalgo, in February, over 
a million square miles had been added to the national 
domain. A wave of prosperity was sweeping over the land, 
and this, coupled with the distressing conditions prevailing 
in Ireland and other parts of Europe, had the effect of swelling 
the rising tide of immigration. 

After a brief sojourn in the city of the three hills, Mrs. 
Collins took her little family to Chelsea, where she estab- 
lished a modest home. In time she remarried, and the 
household was maintained by the combined efforts of its new 
head and the grown-up children, some of whom found light 
employment in the town. Patrick went to school when he 
grew to school age and passed through the primary and inter- 
mediate grades into the grammar, without giving any par- 
ticular evidence of genius or great intellectual gifts. He 
was shy and rather awkward ; he instinctively shrank from 
notoriety. Although he won international fame as an orator 
in later life, he "spoke no pieces" in school. Perhaps no 
opportunity was afforded him to display his talents. The 
atmosphere of the schoolhouse was decidedly hostile to boys 
of his race and creed, less than ten of whom, out of a hundred 
pupils, were enrolled in the several classes. This little 
handful of aliens were subjected to all sorts of indignities 
and persecutions. They were sneered at, jeered at, hissed 
at, beaten and hunted like wild animals. They were com- 
pelled to fight their way to school and home again, and the 
odds against them was always overwhelming. Their per- 
secutors were not only relentless in their hostile attitude, 
but tyrannous in their method of torture and in the form of 
their aggression. Fair play, which is the shibboleth of the 
American man and boy, was denied them. Instead of pitting 
against them opponents of their own class or size, the Chelsea 
youthful exponents of Know-nothingism fell upon them in 
force — five or six to one — and called that sort of thing a fight ! 

About 1835 opposition to foreign immigration was crys- 
tallized and organized in various parts of the United States. 
The native American, forgetting that his progenitors had 



10 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

only recently been immigrants, contended stoutly that he, 
and he only, was entitled to enjoy the blessings of freedom 
and independence under the flag. It should be said to the 
credit of the American people that only a very noisy and a 
very ignorant portion of the population held this view. 
Equality of rights and privileges was then, as it is now, the 
cardinal principle of American social and political life. 
But the noisy and ignorant contingent kept adding to its 
numbers as the influx of immigrants grew larger and larger. 
The Nativist societies, bearing different names and designa- 
tions, had for their common object, ostensibly at least, the 
checking of immigration and the extension of the term of 
residence prerequisite for naturalization to twenty years. 
But contemporary writers refused to be deceived by such 
specious contentions or claims. Brownson's Review in 
1845 boldly declared that the real objection to the foreigner 
lay deeper than the accident of birth. "The party," said 
the editor, ''is truly an anti-Catholic party." The immi- 
grants arriving in America from Catholic Ireland immediately 
after the fierce agitation for and against Catholic emancipa- 
tion, encountered the reflex action of that agitation in the 
large centres of population. The victory won by O'Connell 
had the effect to alarm the intense sectarians in America, 
and to arouse and incite the lower elements of the English 
and Scotch contingents to deeds of violence, just as their 
forefathers had been aroused by the "No-popery" crusade 
of Lord George Gordon in 1780. The Gordon riots were 
signalized by the burning of Catholic churches and convents, 
the razing of Catholic residences, and the wanton destruc- 
tion of property. 

The native American rioters resorted to similar methods 
of protest and attack. A wave of this species of fanatical 
frenzy swept over the United States in the thirties, and left 
a streak of blood and outrage in its wake. In 1834 the Ur- 
suline Convent in Charlestown was burned to the ground by 
a mob, the component elements of which had been easily led 
to believe that this particular "nunnery" was nothing else 
than a prison in which young women were immured and 
made the unwilling victims of a vicious and unchristian sys- 
tem. The vigorous expressions of indignation uttered pub- 
licly by the better class of citizens against this outrage checked 
for a time the progress of organized bigotry; but in 1836 a 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS ir 

notorious impostor named Maria Monk, a woman of evil 
repute, who claimed to have "escaped" from a convent in 
Montreal, fanned the smouldering embers into a fresh flame 
by publishing a book of "disclosures," containing most 
sensational charges against the convent in which she claimed 
to have been an inmate. This publication had an extensive 
circulation in Boston and vicinity. It was, unfortunately, 
adopted by several ministers of the gospel, who took its 
"revelations" as texts for sermons and lectures. The 
following year occurred the Broad Street riot, in which a 
number of persons were injured. The riot was quelled by 
the Mayor, who faced the Nativists with a detachment of 
militia, but not until the "Irish Quarter" had been sacked 
and much property destroyed. The same spirit which ani- 
mated the Know-nothing mobs in Boston in 1834 and 1837 
impelled the Nativist schoolboys of Chelsea to persecute and 
maltreat a helplessly small contingent of little "Paddies," 
as they were called, a few years later. 

Notwithstanding the exposure of Maria Monk and the 
establishment of her character as an unprincipled and 
wanton defamer of the Catholic sisterhoods, the ignorant 
portion of the native population in Boston and its suburbs 
stood always ready and willing to give a hearing to any moun- 
tebank or adventurer who appeared with a plausible "No- 
popery" tale. In 1854, during another wave of sectarian 
disquiet, an uncouth and eccentric Scotch fanatic named 
Orr, bearing the sobriquet of the "Angel Gabriel," conducted 
a crusade against "Popery." In his autobiography written 
in 1893 for the Boston Daily Globe, Mr. Collins gives his 
recollections of the "Angel Gabriel's" visit to Chelsea 
where he was then residing. I quote the following extract : 
"One Sunday afternoon after Sunday-school in the Catholic 
Church in Chelsea some of the teachers, including Collins, 
and nearly all the children, went up on a high hill to the 
northeast and to the fields about — just to see the country and 
bask in the sun. They saw toward East Boston a 'long, 
winding serpent' of people coming. It was the 'Angel 
Gabriel' and some two thousand in his train. They came 
toward the hill. The leader preached a little and some 
disturbance occurred. Then the mob marched to the Catho- 
lic Church and somehow — no one knows how — a num- 
ber of them mounted to the roof and tore the cross off the 



12 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

apex and threw it into the crowd. What became of the 
pieces no man knows. But more was to come. The mob, 
reenforced by Chelsea men, marched through the part of the 
town where the Catholics were and smashed with stones the 
windows and doors of all the houses in which Catholics 
lived. The fury lasted for weeks. Every 'Irish house' 
was a fortification. Trunks and furniture barred every 
front window ; some one was on guard every night in every 
dwelling. The Know-nothing war was hottest in Chelsea 
and ended soonest. CoUjns came out of it whole. He had 
his forearm broken and a few bruises, but all were soon 
healed ; his heart was Irish and the world was before him." 
Partly because of the persecution to which he was sub- 
jected at school and partly because he wished to help sup- 
port the family, he left the halls of learning rather abruptly 
one day and engaged himself to a fish and oyster dealer as 
boy of all work. He was then eleven years of age. He 
delivered goods to customers, opened oysters, dressed and 
"cleaned" cod and haddock, kept books, and "swept out." 
Meanwhile he was enrolled as an altar boy by the pastor of 
the little church which had been attacked by the "Angel 
Gabriel's" gang of fanatics. He taught a class in the 
Sunday-school after his confirmation and was generally 
associated with church affairs. Among the worshippers 
there at that time was Robert Morris, the first colored lawyer 
in Boston. He took a fancy to young Collins and invited 
him to come to Boston as his office boy. This offer he ac- 
cepted. He quit the fish and oyster business forever, and 
transferred his activities to the city whose honored chief 
magistrate he was at the time of his death. While serving 
in his capacity as errand and office boy he got his first glimpse 
at the legal profession; he looked with veneration upon 
lawyers and with awe upon judges. Even his buoyant 
imagination could not comprehend the possibility of his ever 
reaching either dignity. Yet he became a lawyer of dis- 
tinction, and twice he declined a proffered appointment to a 
judicial position in Massachusetts. He peeped cautiously 
into law books, studied the trial lists, sneaked into the court 
rooms to hear pleadings and arguments, and thus absorbed 
much of the atmosphere of the legal profession. He re- 
mained with Mr. Morris until 1857 when his family moved 
out to the Western country. A journey to Ohio was, at 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 13 

that time, as serious an undertaking as a journey to Northern 
Siberia would be to-day. It was undertaken then because 
the opportunities for profitable employment in the East were 
perceptibly diminishing owing to religious fanaticism and 
racial antagonisms. His mother had relatives in Ohio and 
Illinois. They were farmers and coal-miners. There was 
a tinge of adventure in the migration thither, and the lad 
of thirteen saw visions of great deeds and great advancement 
in this new country. And so in 1857 he went there, and for 
two years he tried his hand at all the varieties of manual 
labor that offered. He worked in the fields; he delved in 
the coal-mines ; he ran a stationary engine, he drove a wagon 
to market, and he learned the intricacies of machinery in a 
whetstone mill. 

A serious attack of fever put an end to his activities and 
ambitions as a pioneer in the development of the West. He re- 
turned to Boston in 1859 and sought employment in several 
machine shops. He had acquired a taste for mechanics, 
and he resolved to go into that line of work if he could find 
an opening. But he was rejected by all to whom he applied. 
The machinists and mechanical engineers thought he was 
not physically competent to stand the hard work which their 
trade entailed. He next turned his attention to the uphol- 
stery trade, and was fortunate enough to secure a place in the 
shop of F. M. Holmes & Co., as an apprentice. Here he 
worked side by side with Jeremiah W. Coveney of Cambridge, 
who left the shop in 186 1 to go to the war and who came back 
in 1864 as lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-eighth Massachu- 
setts Regiment of Volunteers. Colonel Coveney later be- 
came surveyor of the port of Boston and served for four years 
as postmaster. In 1863, when he was nineteen years of age, 
Collins became foreman of the shop of Holmes & Co. 
During his apprenticeship the upholsterers' union was 
established, and of this he was a charter member. He was 
elected secretary of the body, and he remained a member 
as long as he was eligible, or, in other words, as long as he 
was an upholsterer. When he became foreman of the shop 
he retained his ''card"; he was the only foreman who be- 
longed to the union. He was a firm believer in sane and 
intelligent combination by workingmen for their mutual 
protection; he went out on strike twice when he had no 
grievance whatever and when the complaints of the strikers 



14 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

did not affect or concern him at all. He believed the men 
were entitled to what they demanded. He remained in the 
upholstery business until 1867, and at that time he was 
receiving the highest wages paid to any foreman in the trade. 

During his eight years at the upholsterer's bench or in 
command of the shop's crew, Mr. Collins lived for the most 
part in South Boston. He walked to the city every morning 
and walked home in the early evening. With marked 
regularity he repaired to the city after supper and proceeded 
to the public library where he spent three or four hours every 
night in reading and studying. He read Roman, Grecian, 
French, and English histories; he pored over the standard 
works of fiction — the works of Dickens, Scott, Thackeray, 
Hugo, Lever, and others. He read Carlyle, Ruskin, and De 
Quincey, Shakespeare, Emerson, and Hawthorne. The 
poetry of Burns, Tennyson, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, 
Dryden, Moore, Holmes, and Pope he absorbed with intel- 
lectual greed, and what he read, he read with con- 
summate care and digested thoroughly. It was thus he 
stored his mind with the rich treasures of thought and 
imagery which imparted to his orations and essays in 
later years that finish and polish which distinguished 
them from all other contemporary efforts. As his mind 
expanded in consequence of this rigid system of self-educa- 
tion, his ambition to achieve a high place in the ranks of 
mechanical engineers gave way gradually to a strong desire 
to enter the legal profession. To that end henceforth he bent 
his mental energies. He studied more sedulously as this 
impulse grew in force, and by strict economy and frugality he 
accumulated a modest surplus intended to cover the cost of 
his law studies. 

So far the story of Mr. Collins' s life and struggles has 
been marked by very unpleasant and unattractive incidents. 
The atmosphere has been murky and uncongenial. There 
was in it enough of persecution for conscience' sake to em- 
bitter the whole life of the man. But the contrary effect 
was produced. He never cherished any ill will against those 
who drove him from school and home. His mind was broad 
enough and his heart was large enough to appreciate the 
circumstances of the case. In 1904 he went to Chelsea and 
made a speech at a banquet, and there was no note of revenge 
or of bitterness of feeling in it. He rose above such petty 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 15 

animosities. It was the good that men do and not the evil 
that he Hked to remember. More than one of the men who, 
in youthful ignorance or blindness, joined in attacks upon 
him while he was a schoolboy cheerfully contributed to the 
fund raised by public subscription to erect a memorial to 
perpetuate his great services to the people as legislator, as 
representative to a foreign country, and as chief executive 
of his adopted city. By precept and example, therefore, 
he promoted and encouraged and fostered that broad spirit of 
tolerance which is happily spreading over the land, wiping 
out the antiquated and anachronistic antagonisms between 
men on account of racial and sectarian conditions and 
associations. He was ever the champion of liberty. Who- 
ever was in bondage or durance found in him a friend whether 
his skin was white, black, or yellow, whether he worshipped 
at a Catholic altar, in a Protestant meeting-house, a Jewish 
synagogue, or a Mohammedan mosque. He preached free- 
dom, physical freedom from alien rule or foreign domina- 
tion, and spiritual freedom or freedom of conscience. To 
quote a line from one of his own greatest speeches, "The 
world was his country and mankind his kin." 



CHAPTER II 

The Fenian Movement in Ireland and America — Collins becomes 
A Leader, an Orator, and a Polemical Writer — His Declara- 
tion OF Independence — Practising what he Preached — The 
Ivory Case. 

THE group of ardent young revolutionists who acted and 
worked with O'Connell for CathoHc emancipation and 
other reforms, broke with him in 1846 because he 
manifested a disposition to estabhsh a modus vivendi with the 
Whigs. Later they declared boldly in favor of the freedom of 
Ireland, and proceeded, with this object in view, to strengthen 
and perpetuate the organization which he had built up for 
another purpose. They were a brilliant set of men having the 
confidence of the masses, and when they formed the Irish 
Confederation upon the foundation of the Emancipation 
party in 1847, John Mitchel, the acknowledged leader, had 
a following of fully one hundred and fifty thousand men who 
were nervously anxious for a fight, but poorly armed. With 
him as associates were such men as Charles Gavan Duffy, 
William Smith O'Brien, Thomas Francis Meagher, John 
O'Mahony, John Savage, Michael Doheny, and a score of 
others. The success of the French revolution had embold- 
ened the Young Ireland party, and silenced those who coun- 
selled moderation and delay. Revolution was preached 
openly on the rostrum and in the press. An address was 
sent to the leaders of the republican movement in France, 
in which the confederation declared that the heroism and 
courage of the French people "taught enslaved nations that 
emancipation ever awaits those who dare to achieve it by 
their own intrepidity." This was accepted as a challenge 
by Lord John Russell's government. Parliament at once 
passed a treason-felony act; Mitchel was arrested, tried, 
and sentenced to exile for fourteen years ; the habeas corpus 
act was suspended ; the newspaper organs of the party were 
suppressed and their editors thrown into prison. The gov- 
ernment had intimate knowledge of the conditions prevail- 

16 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 17 

ing, through its spy and informer system. The people were 
eager to fight, but they were insufficiently armed and their 
leaders were scattered and hunted by the police. A pre- 
mature uprising was forced by the government, and of 
course it failed. Four of the leaders were sentenced to 
death for treason; two were transported to Australia, and 
five or six others escaped to America. Savage and O'Ma- 
hony made a final stand in Tipperary and Kilkenny and 
tried heroically to rally the unorganized masses, but they 
were overpowered and forced to flee. England had be- 
tween forty thousand and fifty thousand troops on the island. 

The failure of this second revolutionary assault upon 
British rule in Ireland within half a century left the people 
leaderless but not hopeless. The spirit of revolt still ex- 
isted, but it could find no advantageous vent ; it was stifled 
by the power of an established government represented by 
a well-disciplined, well-equipped army and an efficient 
corps of spies. And so for several years there was quiet 
throughout the country. Sporadically secret societies were 
formed to keep the young men in sympathy with the national 
desire. Secret drills were held in secluded spots in the 
country districts. The little bands gradually came into 
contact with each other, thus spreading and extending the 
network of organization. In some parts of the island 
Phoenix societies sprang up ; in others there were branches 
of the Irish Revolutionary Brotherhood; and again there 
were Fenian circles. 

The Fenian Brotherhood was started in , America by 
some of the former leaders of the Young Ireland move- 
ment. The first step in this direction was taken in New 
York City by John O'Mahony, Michael Corcoran, and 
Michael Doheny in 1857. James Stephens was then 
operating in Ireland. He was the recognized leader of 
the Phoenix society. In 1858 John O'Mahony was elected 
president of the American branch. But it was not until 
1863 that the Fenian Brotherhood was recognized or under- 
stood in this country. Quiet effort among the men who had 
been driven from home by famine and oppressive land 
laws resulted in spreading the organization, not only in the 
United States but in Canada and Australia. In 1864 and 
1865 these scattered sections of the Irish people were in 
effective communication through trusted leaders, and the 



i8 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

hearts of millions of earnest patriots beat feverishly as the 
prospect of a successful struggle for liberty and nationality 
grew brighter. 

In 1864 Patrick A. Collins, then an upholsterer, joined 
the Fenian Brotherhood in South Boston. He had been 
studying the Irish question closely, and his youthful imagi- 
nation was fired by the prospect of a serious movement in 
force against the oppressors of his native land. Other 
young men of his acquaintance enlisted also in the army 
of liberation. His was not a nature to be content with 
mere membership or a passive position in any society where 
there was work to be done. If he believed in its principles, 
he was sure to take an active part in propagating them; 
if he did not believe in its principles, he would not join. 
With the ardor of youth and the enthusiasm of a new recruit 
he plunged into the thick of the contest. The Irish socie- 
ties — the "men in the gap" — needed men, money, and 
munitions of war. It was the duty of the American aux- 
iliaries, he held, to supply these essentials. Mr. Collins's 
oratorical powers had already developed perceptibly. In 
debating societies to which he belonged he had won a high 
place both as a speaker and a logician. He delivered 
several addresses before local gatherings in and around 
Boston, and so effective was his oratory that he was soon 
in general demand. He was called to New York by O'Ma- 
hony and the other leaders early in his career, and after they 
had taken note of his work and his ability they commis- 
sioned him as one of the organizers of the society. Wherever 
he spoke branches or circles were promptly formed amid 
scenes of enthusiasm, and the local committees reported to 
headquarters that the success achieved was mainly due to 
Collins's impassioned and convincing eloquence. Although 
he had not yet reached his majority he was in frequent con- 
sultation with the older leaders who had been campaigning 
for a quarter of a century. His wisdom, his tact, and his 
sound judgment in counsel were only surpassed by his 
effectiveness as a platform advocate. He won a high place 
at once in the ranks of the revolutionists and became a 
national figure. 

When Thomas Clarke Luby launched the Irish People 
newspaper in Dublin in 1863, the country was in a state of 
intense but suppressed excitement. Luby had been to 



MR. COLLINS AT THE AGE OF TWELVE 

AT THE AGE OF EIGHTEEN 

AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-FOUR 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 19 

America, where he made a personal inspection of the Fenian 
body. He had had interviews with the civil and military 
leaders, and he returned to Ireland buoyed up with sublime 
confidence. Scores of Irish patriots were fighting for the 
preservation of the Union, and others had already left the 
service with a valuable stock of experience in military science. 
It was from America that the Irish leaders hoped to secure 
trained officers to organize and direct the revolutionary 
movement. Stephens and Luby had interviewed scores of 
these officers during their American tour. Two of their 
former associates in the '48 agitation had already won dis- 
tinction and promotion in the Federal army by bravery 
and proficiency in military tactics. These were Brigadier- 
generals Thomas Francis Meagher and Michael Corcoran, 
both of whom had escaped from Ireland after the collapse 
of the ill-fated Young Ireland enterprise. At the Chicago 
convention of 1863 fifteen thousand enrolled Fenians were 
represented by delegates. Fully one-half of these fifteen 
thousand were then serving in the Union army as officers and 
enlisted men. It was the purpose of all of them, after they 
should have done their full duty to their adopted country, to 
strike a blow for the freedom of their native land. This pur- 
pose was communicated to the "men in the gap" at home, 
and the news brought hope and cheer to the thousands of 
young men who were ready and willing to sacrifice their 
lives upon the altar of Irish liberty. Luby's paper, which 
was the organ of advanced revolutionary thought in Ireland, 
declared boldly for a rising of the people. His open ad- 
vocacy of revolution was accepted by the government as an 
indication of unusual strength and preparedness on the part 
of the "rebels," and drastic measures were promptly adopted 
to crush the revolt before its leaders could get ready to take 
the field. 

The close of the Civil War in America gave freedom of 
action to officers and men who felt pledged to Ireland's 
cause. At last they were at liberty to sail for the Green 
Isle and to take part with their kinsmen in the impending 
struggle for national independence. That many of them 
did cross the ocean to prepare the Irish Fenians for the 
fierce combat that was impending is a matter of history. 
Stephens, Luby, O'Donovan Rossa, and the others who were 
directing the preparations for the expected uprising had 



20 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

learned that there was serious disaffection in the British 
army, exaggerated reports of which were spread among the 
people, inordinately raising their hopes and producing a 
spirit of buoyant recklessness that led to fatal indiscretions. 
Stephens issued a proclamation in September, 1865, which 
ended with these words, "The flag of the Irish Republic 
must this year be raised." Brave words, indeed, and 
defiant, but it were better had they been left unsaid. The 
time to strike the blow had, in the judgment of the leaders, 
arrived. But it was the government that struck. The 
Castle authorities were well informed as to what was trans- 
piring. Luby, Rossa, Stephens, and the editorial staff of 
the Irish People were promptly arrested ; the paper was sup- 
pressed; martial law was proclaimed in the disturbed dis- 
tricts, and many valuable documents belonging to the 
organization were secured. These incriminated hundreds 
of men in Dublin, Cork, Liverpool, Manchester, and London. 
Wholesale arrests were made in these centres of activity, over 
four hundred men being captured and thrown into prison by 
the official drag-net. A special commission was appointed 
to try the prisoners. This august body was composed of 
judges selected as well for their congenital hatred of every- 
thing Irish as for their servile loyalty to the Crown. They 
did their work well. In a short time the big prisons of 
England were packed, and the convict ships plying between 
London and the Australasian penal colonies were heavily 
freighted with the best exemplars of Irish pluck and Irish 
valor. 

The disaster which befell the organization in Ireland 
created consternation in America. Roseate reports on the 
conditions prevailing among the "men in the gap" had just 
come to the O'Mahony headquarters in New York through 
trusted agents and confidential letters from correspondents. 
Even in the same mail that brought news of the wholesale 
arrests and hasty prosecutions there came assurances of 
unity, harmony, and fixedness of purpose among the revo- 
lutionary hosts. But here was a sudden and unexpected 
collapse which practically left the Irish contingent of the Fe- 
nian Brotherhood without a head. For although Stephens 
had escaped from prison he was hunted by the govern- 
ment sleuths and forced to take up his residence in France. 
For four or five years the friends of Ireland in America had 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS ai 

worked incessantly to build up an organization that would 
be able to furnish men, money, and munitions of war to the 
expectant patriots at home, and now the organization was 
threatened with dissolution. Internal dissensions had arisen 
in America, also, and the fiasco in Ireland precipitated an 
outbreak of hitherto hidden jealousies and animosities. Mr. 
Collins was of those who took the optimistic side in the con- 
troversy. He believed in O'Mahony, and he flouted the 
charges and insinuations of certain ''senators." He pleaded 
earnestly for harmony and united effort, contending that all 
was not lost in Ireland, that the flurry would soon subside, 
that new leaders would spring up, and that the American 
executive officers were faithful and honest in the discharge 
of their sacred trust. Not only from the platform but in 
the public prints did he plead eloquently for harmony and 
toleration. 

One of the distressing and disturbing phases of the con- 
troversy at this stage was the attitude of the Catholic clergy 
who were generally hostile to Fenianism, although no formal 
condemnation had been pronounced or proclaimed by the 
Roman Pontiff. The Catholic press in America was largely 
controlled by the bishops and priests, and the columns of 
these journals teemed at the critical moment under con- 
sideration with scathing denunciations of the revolutionary 
movement. Candidly speaking, this attitude was entirely 
consistent. The Church uniformly has condemned secret 
societies as subversive of morals and injurious to the Faith. 
Mr. Collins, chafing under the taunts of certain Catholic 
journals and goaded to anger by the catastrophe under 
which the organization was suffering through dissensions 
and bickerings, plunged into the field of polemics. Com- 
bating a labored diatribe against Fenianism in the columns 
of the Pittsburg Catholic in September, 1865, he said among 
other things: "There are too many in this country prone 
to confound the religious with the political opinions of a 
clergyman, and willing to concede to him the privilege of 
using his clerical influence for the enforcement of his politi- 
cal views. I am not one of that kind. I am inclined to 
accept the lamented Mulligan's dictum, — 'as a soldier I 
obey my general, as a Catholic I obey my bishop. But I 
will not obey religious commands from the general nor mili- 
tary or political orders from the bishop.' ... A clergyman 



22 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

has no more right to mark out for an Irishman his course in 
Irish politics than he has to dictate to an American whether 
he shall vote the Republican or the Democratic ticket." 
When Mr. Collins wrote this declaration of independence 
he had just attained his majority. In it he stated concisely 
the views and sentiments of all intelligent advocates of 
Irish liberty, and he never abandoned this position during 
his active and sometimes stormy political career. He cher- 
ished a deeply rooted belief that the chief essential of personal 
liberty was the individual man's right to form and enjoy his 
political convictions without dictation or coercion from any 
quarter. He never tolerated interference with his political 
prerogatives, and he never attempted to impose his views 
upon others except through the channel of reasonable argu- 
ment and discussion. He asked nothing for himself in this 
respect that he was not willing to concede to others. 

We find in studying Mr. Collins's writings and public 
addresses during this period striking evidence of the maturity 
of his mind, the wide range of his reading, and the keenness 
of his perceptions. He discussed questions of international, 
ethical, and civic importance with a judicial calmness and a 
profundity of thought rarely displayed by men of his years. 
There was no tinge of flamboyancy in his style. His lan- 
guage was simple, direct, and forcible. He resorted to 
none of the tricks of rhetoric. His words were chosen with 
a view to convey, not to conceal, thought. Recognizing the 
constant growth of the Irish contingent in American indus- 
trial and political life, he posted himself on the watch tower 
and gave timely warning of the dangers and pitfalls to 
which they were exposed. Demagogic appeals were made 
to them by unscrupulous and crafty politicians who sought 
their votes by subtly pandering to their prejudices and 
flattering their national vanity. There was danger that 
the Irish question would be made a foot-ball in American 
political contests. Mr. Collins saw clearly that if this 
should happen, irreparable injury would be done to the 
cause of Ireland, and he protested against it with all the 
vehemence and vigor that he could command. He coun- 
selled his fellow-exiles to discriminate sharply between 
purely Irish and purely American issues, to ignore the 
appeals of the demagogues who tearfully recited the wrongs 
inflicted upon Ireland by England, and to study American 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 23 

questions solely with a view to effecting the greatest good 
to the country of their adoption. The purpose of patriotic 
Irishmen in America, he contended, should be to give to 
the Irish in Ireland as good and as free a government as 
that which the Irish enjoyed in the United States, and to 
make the latter better and freer than it was by their intelli- 
gent exercise of the franchise. ''As a class," he wrote, 
*'we must not act in American politics; as individuals it 
is our solemn duty to perform all the functions of citizen- 
ship. Whatever excuses may have existed in the past for 
concentrated action against illiberality and proscription 
have been by the course of events dissipated. The issues 
raised now are purely American in their tendencies and 
consequences; and after the sacrifices which foreigners 
have made for the Union it will be impossible to conjure 
up the illiberal, intolerant, and un-American principles of 
the past." 

On another occasion, in 1866, he discussed this question 
even more fully and laid down a plan of action for the mass 
of voters of Irish birth and lineage. He advised them to 
abstain from giving their suffrages en bloc to any candidate 
or any party unless they had previously made a thorough 
study of men and measures, and had convinced themselves 
that they were voting for the best interests of the republic. 
"There are good and bad men in every party," he wrote, 
"and we should consider principles and not individuals as 
paramount in making our decision as to which party we 
will support. As citizens of this land we are equal sharers 
in the blessings of free, popular government, and as a con- 
stituent, yet distinct, part of the nation we require no ex- 
ceptional treatment. All we ask is that the government 
shall be administered according to the spirit of the Con- 
stitution and the genius of republicanism, with a view to 
the dissemination of liberal principles everywhere, and the 
expansion of the growing spirit of liberty throughout the 
world. And if we, in our individual capacities, act as law- 
abiding citizens, — casting our votes as the higher dictates 
of our consciences command, —we will surely secure the 
good-will of the people among whom our lot has been cast, 
and will see, in time, this nation wielding a powerful influ- 
ence in the affairs of oppressed nations the world over. If 
we hope for or expect the sympathy of the American people, 



24 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

we must have sufficient discretion to avoid becoming the 
followers or champions of a faction which, whether suc- 
cessful or not, will only appraise us at our value in an 
election." 

Thus early in his public life Mr. Collins gave proof of 
the possession of courage and manly independence in deal- 
ing with questions of national and international policy. 
Nearly twenty years later when he was calling a halt in the 
ominous drift of the ''Irish vote" to Blaine, he sounded the 
same note of warning. A specious and dishonest appeal 
to Irish prejudice had been made covertly and spread 
insidiously by unscrupulous agencies, and what was feared 
to be a stampede of Irish-American democrats to the Repub- 
lican fold was in progress. To stem this hegira was the 
task imposed upon Mr. Collins by the national committee.- 
How the work was done and how well it was done is told 
elsewhere in this volume. But I may quote an extract here 
to show how steadfastly he adhered to the principles adopted 
and enunciated in his younger days. Speaking at Albany, 
New York, in July, 1884, he said: "Those of us who were 
born in Ireland or who spring from the Irish race are here 
to stay. Whatever our Irish affiliations, ties, or affections 
may be — and I hope they are many — in American poli- 
tics, we are Americans, pure and simple. We ask nothing 
on account of race or creed, and we submit to no 
slight or injury on account of either. We and our 
children and our children's children are here merged 
in this great, free, composite nationality, true and 
loyal citizens of the state and federal systems, sharing in 
the burdens and the blessings of the freest people on the 
earth. All we ask is equality for us and ours. The man 
who takes less or demands more is no true American." In 
another portion of this famous address he said : "As Catho- 
lics all we ask is fair play, and equal terms with all others 
in the community. We ask no special favors, and we serve 
notice on those who have so suddenly shown zeal for us — 
or our votes — that we are guided in our public conduct 
by principle, not by prejudice; and that if they appeal 
to the lower motives, they appeal to us in vain." 

While the British government was making arrests by 
wholesale in 1866 and 1867, for the purpose of effectually 
wiping out the Fenian conspiracy, many naturalized Ameri- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 25 

can citizens fell into the hands of the authorities. They 
were arrested as "suspects," or they had been caught in 
places of revolutionary resort and were therefore amenable 
to the local laws. Many of these, and more especially the 
"suspects," were held in prison for months without trial. 
They were treated precisely as were the native subjects, 
without reference to the fact that they were citizens of a 
foreign country, and consequently exempt from the opera- 
tion or application of sumptuary legislation. Others were 
tried before special commissions, convicted by packed 
juries and sentenced to serve long terms in British jails. 
Encouraged by the non-interference of the American gov- 
ernment and the utter indifference of its diplomatic and 
consular representatives to the fate of these men, the Eng- 
lish police agents gathered into their nets American citizens 
who had previously offended by giving sympathy and 
encouragement to the Irish cause in America. A con- 
spicuous example of this class of victims was Stephen 
Joseph Meany, a citizen of the state of Ohio. Mr. Meany 
had been a member of the Fenian Brotherhood, and had 
taken part in the public discussions which the existence of 
that body had brought out in the United States. He re- 
signed his membership in the organization when internal 
dissensions sprang up within its ranks. Later he went to 
Europe, merely as a traveller, on a business and pleasure 
trip. The police authorities had been reading speeches 
delivered by him in New York and elsewhere the previous 
year, and they put him under surveillance. But they were 
unable to discover any evidence of a secret mission or any 
proof of the slightest connection with the Fenian conspiracy 
as it then existed. Yet they arrested him in England as 
a "suspect," and secretly hurried him over to Ireland where 
the coercion laws were in force, giving the police and the 
judges exceptional powers over the lives and liberties of 
Irishmen. After six months' incarceration Mr. Meany 
was tried before a special commission, found guilty of 
treason-felony, and sentenced to imprisonment for fifteen 
years. The only evidence of treason that was offered at 
the trial was a speech which he delivered at a Fenian meet- 
ing in New York City. By a strange coincidence another 
prominent American citizen who took a conspicuous part 
in that meeting and whose address was as strong in its 



26 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

terms of condemnation of England's policy of coercion 
in Ireland as that of Mr Meany, went to England about 
the same time. This was Mr. Fernando Wood, once mayor 
of New York. Mr. Wood travelled through England and 
Ireland unmolested. Mr. Meany was locked up in an 
English jail as a traitor. Now if one was guilty of treason, 
surely both were guilty. Both took part in that treasonable 
meeting in New York. Both denounced England, and both 
unequivocally justified the efforts of the Fenians to break 
the yoke that held Ireland bound as an unwilling partner 
in the Union. As an American citizen Mr. Collins protested 
vigorously against the supineness of the government and 
the indifference of the American minister, Mr. Charles 
Francis Adams, to the fate of men like Mr. Meany, who were 
punished for sentiments entertained and expressed in free 
America. In particular he cried out against the discrimi- 
nation between native and naturalized citizens in the matter 
of governmental care and protection abroad. He organized 
a mass meeting in Faneuil Hall at which resolutions con- 
demnatory of England's impudent claim that naturalization 
in a foreign country does not wholly release a British sub- 
ject from his allegiance, were adopted with enthusiasm. He 
wrote letters and editorial articles for the Irish newspapers, 
and succeeded in creating a public sentiment hostile to the 
administration and in favor of a vigorous reassertion of the 
American doctrine which brought on the war of 1812 and 
put an end forever to the impressment of American sailors 
by Great Britain. Discussing the outrage upon Mr. Meany, 
Mr. Collins wrote: "Unless two wars between America and 
England were in vain, here was a clear case for Minister 
Adams. Did he assert the dignity of his country and de- 
mand the unconditional release of Mr. Meany? Nothing 
of the sort. Mr. Meany' s indignant protest from the dock 
was of no avail; his claim to protection was scouted, dis- 
regarded. The law or what passed for law took its course. 
An accomplished gentleman and cultivated scholar advanced 
in years and unused to manual labor, he must serve his 
sentence among the vilest of England's criminals at a labori- 
ous occupation in an English quarry. Men may well inquire 
what is citizenship worth? If words spoken in New York 
are punishable in Dublin, it is worth nothing, naturalization 
is a sham, and the Declaration of Independence a nullity. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 27 

Stephen J. Meany is no more guilty of treason to Queen 
Victoria than Senator Wilson of Massachusetts, Congress- 
man Robinson of New York, or Fernando Wood of New 
York, whose voices I have heard often at Fenian gatherings 
in behalf of the Fenian cause. I think it is scarcely probable 
that Mr. Adams would permit his friend Mr. Wilson to be 
sentenced by a British tribunal for his expressed sympathy 
for Ireland, without interposing his authority to save him. 
Yet the insult to America is the same whether it be a senator 
or a chimney-sweep that receives it. America is now too 
strong to brook an insult from a waning empire and too 
much indebted to adopted citizens to ignore their claims 
for protection from foreign aggression. It is time to define 
the status of the adopted citizen. He swears allegiance to 
the Constitution ; let us see if it will protect him. He sheds 
his blood to insure the perpetual liberty of the nation; let 
us see if he is to enjoy his share of that liberty." 

About thirty years later Mr. Collins was Consul-general 
of the United States at London. It happened that one 
Edward J. Ivory of New York had been arrested at Glas- 
gow for complicity in a dynamite plot. When he was placed 
in the dock for trial Mr. Collins was there to see that the 
American citizen's rights were conserved. He watched every 
move in the game which Scotland Yard and the informers 
were playing, and he had the satisfaction of seeing the man 
fully acquitted. It is no exaggeration to say that the evi- 
dence against Ivory was far more serious and damaging than 
the evidence on which Meany was convicted. But Meany 
had no friends at the Legation or the Consulate ; Ivory had. 

I am permitted to publish the following letter from the 
Hon. John F. Mclntyre, who was retained by friends of 
Ivory in New York for the defence. Mr. Mclntyre was 
assistant district attorney for the city and county of New 
York, and he was selected for this delicate service because 
of his ability and diplomatic tact and skill. He writes: — 

November q, 100=;. 

M. P. CuRRAN, Esq. 
Boston, Mass. 

My dear Sir: — 

Replying to your letter of November i, 1905, I beg to 
state that the case to which you refer was that of Edward 



28 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

J. Ivory, charged with being a dynamiter by the Crown. 
He was indicted under what was called the Explosive Sub- 
stances Act in London in 1897. I was retained by the Irish 
societies of this country to go abroad and aid in his defence. 
When I got over I found many obstacles thrown in my way 
even by those who were retained to assist Ivory. I called 
on the late Hon. Patrick A. Collins to obtain for me, from 
time to time, such consideration as would be consistent 
from the attorney-general of the kingdom, as well as the 
Home Office. Mr. Collins did everything that could be done 
in that direction and was of extremely great service to me. 
Moreover he attended the Trial Court every day during the 
trial, and his presence there was of great consequence to the 
defendant. In addition to that he consulted with me very 
frequently concerning Ivory's defence, also with the Q. C, 
who was retained by Ivory ; aided us in examination of the 
law from time to time, and interviewed witnesses who were 
to be used for the defence. Everything that could be done 
by one occupying the position that Mr. Collins did was done 
by him. Happily for us the case never got to the jury. 
The Crown was compelled to abandon the case after all the 
evidence for the prosecution had been introduced. 

I have the honor to be 
Very sincerely yours, 

John F. McIntyre. 

Ivory was arrested in the autumn of 1896 and was brought 
before the local criminal court for examination, and fre- 
quently remanded to Holloway prison while the Scotland 
Yard detectives were trying to weave a web around him 
with which they hoped to be able to achieve his undoing. 
Mr. Collins took an active interest in the case from the very 
start. Although the ambassador professed to be sympa- 
thetically concerned about the rights of the accused there is 
reason to believe that American activity in Ivory's behalf 
in London was confined to the consulate-general. Mr. 
Collins got into touch with the state department over 
which Mr. Richard Olney, his friend, presided, and he re- 
ceived instructions to watch the proceedings. This fact 
gave him full authority to see Ivory in prison, to consult with 
his counsel, and to attend the hearings in Court. There 
was grave danger of a misunderstanding between the em- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 29 

bassy and the consulate, and Mr. Collins was obliged to 
use all the tact that he possessed to prevent even the sem- 
blance of friction. On October 23, 1896, he wrote the 
following note to the Hon. James R. Roosevelt, secretary of 
the embassy: — 

Consulate-general 

of the United States, 

12 St. Helen's Place, 

London, E.C. 

Hon. James R. Roosevelt, 

Secretary of the U.S. Embassy 
123 Victoria Street, S.W. 

Dear Mr. Roosevelt: — 

Some friends of Edward J. Ivory, otherwise Bell, now on 
remand at Holloway, have failed to obtain permission to 
see him, and are under the impression that perhaps he may 
not be fully advised as to his rights in the choice of a solicitor 
and counsel. They do not desire in any way to make a 
fuss about the matter, but suggest that some representa- 
tive of our government, Ivory being an American citizen, 
visit him at Halloway and ascertain precisely how he feels 
and what his wishes are, as well as to advise him as to his 
rights. These friends are prepared to furnish him with 
such solicitors and counsel as he may desire. 

I respectfully suggest, under the circumstances, that this 
would be a proper thing to do, and I know you will pardon 
my making a suggestion regarding the diplomatic end of 
the service. 

I am yours very sincerely, 

(signed) Patrick A. Collins. 

Consul-general. 

On October 24 Mr. Roosevelt replied to this letter as 

follows : — 

Embassy of the United States, 

London, Oct. 24, 1896. 

Dear General: — 

Yours of yesterday received. I also had a visit yesterday 
from some of Ivory's friends. We have no instructions in 
regard to the case from Washington, and can take no action. 
I have however placed the circumstances before the ambas- 



30 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

sador confidentially by mail, as I am not charge d'affaires at 
present, and will await his reply. There would be nothing 
to prevent your obtaining permission to visit Ivory in Hol- 
loway if you should care to do so. 

Believe me yours very sincerely 
(signed) James R. Roosevelt. 

Secretary. 

Two weeks later Mr. Collins again wrote to Mr. Roosevelt 
advising him that he had instructions from Washington to 
watch the proceedings in the case of Ivory. To this he re- 
ceived a reply from Mr. Bayard in which great interest in 
the Ivory case was manifested. The ambassador wrote : — 

Embassy of the United States, 
London, November 9, 1896. 

Dear General: — 

Mr. Roosevelt is ill, and has gone out of town to recover 
his health. He sent down to this office a note from you 
dated November 5, read by me this morning, stating that 
you had been instructed by the State Department to ''watch 
the proceedings" in the case of Ivory or Bell. Ever since 
receiving a letter from the accused his case has been 
"watched" by me, and some one from this office has attended 
the examination of witnesses and ascertained that the right 
of the accused to select his legal counsel and arrange all safe- 
guards for his legal rights was secured to him. 

I shall continue to have some one in attendance at the 
hearing, and Mr. Carter, the second secretary, will prob- 
ably be assigned, as heretofore, to that duty. The accused 
was aware of Mr. Carter's presence and commented to him 
upon the weakness of the case against him. All this I state 
without the slightest suggestion of an abatement in your 
interest in the case, or of diminishing your activity under 
the instructions of the department. 

I am sincerely yours, 
(signed) Thomas F. Bayard. 

That the consul and not the ambassador was the agent 
of the State Department in this case is clearly proven by 
the official report forwarded to the assistant secretary of 
state, the Hon. W. W. Rockhill, a copy of which is here 
given : — 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 31 

United States Consulate-general 

London, January 20, 1897. 

Hon. W. W. Rockhill, 

Assistant Secretary of State. 
Sir : I have the honor to acknowledge the department's 
despatch, No. 125, directing me to watch the proceedings 
in the case of Edward J. Ivory, an American citizen, im- 
prisoned here on a charge of conspiracy. 

After my despatch of October 9, 1896, Ivory was twice 
remanded by the magistrate, and was finally held for the 
grand jury. The grand jury indicted him on the two charges, 
and he was placed on trial on the i8th inst. at the Central 
Criminal Court. After two days' trial which I attended, 
the counsel for the Crown, this morning, abandoned the 
prosecution for want of sufficient evidence ; a verdict of not 
guilty was rendered, and Ivory was discharged. 
I have the honor to be, sir. 

Your obedient servant, 
(signed) Patrick A. Collins. 
Consul-general. 



CHAPTER III 

Mr. Collins as a Lawyer — His First Client — Reenters American 
Politics — Representative and Senator in the State Legisla- 
ture — Judge-advocate General of the State Militia — The 
National Campaign of 1876 — He becomes a Leader of the 
National Democracy. 

THE purpose of Mr. Collins's later study and reading 
was to lay the foundation for a professional career. 
It was his ambition, not alone to be a lawyer, but to 
be a good lawyer. He realized the brevity and inadequacy of 
his term of attendance at school, and he sought by a system- 
atic course of self-instruction to make up the educational 
defect which was its consequence. It was a hard task which 
Jie imposed upon himself, but he applied himself to its per- 
formance with his characteristic energy and determination. 
These qualities always insure success. Of course the work of 
bread-winning must be kept up, and so young Collins made 
chairs and sofas by day and pursued the quest for knowledge 
under the library lamps by night. He began the active 
study of law in 1867 in the office of James M. Keith, a ster- 
ling Democrat, and a gentleman of the "old school." In 
this year, also, he made his first entry into American poli- 
tics, but this event was the result of accident rather than 
design. With a companion he strolled one evening into a 
ward room in South Boston, where a Democratic caucus 
was in progress. He watched the proceedings with evident 
interest, but took no active part in the business of the gather- 
ing. During the absence of a committee, some one sug- 
gested that the young man be invited to address the assembly. 
He was reluctant to do so, but finally yielded to entreaty 
and persuasion. Without preparation and without time to 
prepare or arrange his thoughts he made a brief speech, 
which thrilled his auditors by its appositeness, its faultless 
diction, and its sound sense. Liberal applause rewarded 
his eloquent exposition of Democratic principles, and he was 

32 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS . 33 

cheered to the echo when he took his seat. The absent 
committee had come into the room during his address, and 
its members joined with their brethren in enthusiastically 
applauding the young orator's effort. The "slate" was 
smashed, and Patrick A. Collins left the caucus as one of 
the delegates of the party to the State Convention. At a 
caucus held a few months later he was nominated as a can- 
didate for representative to the General Court. Twice he 
was elected to this office, and in the autumn of 1869, he was 
nominated and elected to serve as a member of the Senate 
of 1870, and was reelected to the Senate of 1871. When he 
entered the upper branch, he was the youngest man who 
had ever donned the senatorial toga in Massachusetts. 

During his four years' service in the state legislature, Mr. 
Collins was associated with the framing and advocacy of 
many measures affecting the interests of the people and the 
advance of the old Commonwealth along the lines of social 
and industrial progress. In his last year in the Senate he 
was honored by an appointment as chairman of the com- 
mittee on harbors, the only committee in either branch over 
which a Democrat presided. In his capacity as chairman 
of this committee he made a comprehensive study of the 
needs of Boston Harbor. His exhaustive report to the legis- 
lature on this and allied subjects affecting the commerce 
of the port afforded abundant and convincing evidence of his 
possession of an "instinctive prescience" of future growth 
and needs, and of his ability as a constructive legislator. 
In those days Catholic chaplains were unknown in penal 
or charitable institutions conducted by the state or by mu- 
nicipalities. It was not even possible under the system of 
management prevailing to get permission for a clergyman of 
that faith to perform his sacred functions within the walls 
of these establishments. Through Mr. Collins's efforts, 
and the cooperation of other liberal-minded men, some prog- 
ress was made during his legislative service, in removing 
unfair and unjust discrimination against Catholics in this 
respect. A long and important step in advance was also 
made, through his endeavors, in the direction of a repeal of 
the practice of administering a special form of oath to Catho- 
lics who appeared as witnesses in the trial of causes before 
the courts of the Commonwealth. This relic of early bigotry 
and intolerance was a constant source of annoyance and 



34 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

irritation to educated and enlightened Catholic citizens, and 
Mr. Collins appealed to the public spirit of the state to abol- 
ish it as a hideous and offensive anachronism. The effect 
of intelligent and well-directed agitation is never wholly 
lost; it bears fruit in good time. The special oath for 
Catholic witnesses was annulled by the Legislature of 1873. 

On the day following the prorogation of the Legislature 
of 187 1, Mr. Collins opened his law office in Boston. He had 
supplemented his studies in the ofhce of Mr. Keith by attend- 
ance at the lectures in the law school of Harvard Univer- 
sity. After spending two terms in this famous institution 
of legal learning, he passed his examination and was admitted 
to the bar. With a buoyant step and a cheerful smile he 
entered his little ofi&ce where no clients were waiting and 
where no voluminous mail, bearing retainers or requests 
for advice or consultation, demanded his attention. Many 
of his associates and companions in the law school could 
step into luxurious offices, where fathers, brothers, or other 
relations had already established a lucrative practice, and 
where plenty of business might be had for the doing. But 
Mr. Collins had no advantages of this sort. He had no rich 
or powerful relatives to offer retainers; he knew no con- 
trollers or directors of big business corporations or financial 
establishments; his social environment was of the plain 
people; his equipment for the struggle ahead of him con- 
sisted of a well-stored mind, a clear head, a good knowledge 
of law, and a firm determination to win a place in his chosen 
profession. To these might be added a well-established 
reputation for honesty, integrity, and sublime courage. He 
was recognized by those who knew him personally as well 
as by those who had been associated with him in public 
affairs as a man of unswerving devotion to principle, as a 
man who sought the highest ideals, and as a man of fixed 
convictions. What was needed to insure success was oppor- 
tunity. 

On the first day of his tenancy of the new law office, Mr. 
Leopold Morse, a prosperous merchant, who later repre- 
sented with credit and ability a Boston district in Congress, 
retained Mr. Collins as counsel in the trial of a case soon to 
be listed in the Superior Court. This little incident laid 
the foundation of a friendship between the two men, which 
endured until it was broken by the summons of death. Mr. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



35 



Morse heartily enjoyed opportunities for making other 
people happy ; and he never failed to seize such opportuni- 
ties. That his thoughtful courtesy in this instance brought 
happiness to the young and briefless lawyer was often at- 
tested by the recipient. In 1882 the writer was the guest 
of Mr. Morse in Washington, and was invited to accompany 
him on a drive during which he paid official visits to the 
Chinese Legation, the Department of Justice, and the Treas- 
ury. Having attended to his business as a congressman in 
these establishments, he proceeded to the Navy Department, 
as he said, to make a social call. William H. Hunt of Louisi- 
ana, who had held the office of Secretary of the Navy in Gar- 
field's Cabinet, had just been transferred to the head of 
the American Legation at St. Petersburg, and William E. 
Chandler of New Hampshire had been chosen by President 
Arthur to fill his place. When Mr. Morse reached the 
private office of the Secretary he was admitted without cere- 
mony, as he was an influential member of the committee 
on naval affairs, and as such always had the entree. Walk- 
ing up to the retiring Secretary who was arranging his private 
papers, Mr. Morse said : "Mr. Secretary, I called to pay my 
respects, to thank you for the many courtesies received at 
your hands during your incumbency of the office, and to 
wish you success and the highest prosperity in your new 
field of activity." Mr. Hunt was visibly affected. He 
grasped his visitor's hand with evident emotion and thanked 
him cordially for his good wishes and his thoughtfulness. 
On leaving the room, Mr. Morse said: ''I have the deepest 
sympathy for Mr. Hunt. You observe that no callers were 
waiting to secure audience with him. He is out ; he has 
nothing to give. Those who should, from a sense of grati- 
tude, be among the first to bid him God-speed, are animated 
by a lively sense of favors to come. They are fawning 
around his successor." Here was the same instinct that 
prompted him to cheer a young lawyer with a retainer on the 
first day of his professional career. 

To any one who studied Mr. Collins's career at close 
range, the conviction must necessarily have come that had 
he devoted himself assiduously to the practice of his pro- 
fession and eschewed politics, he would have reached an 
eminence at the bar second to none. He possessed in a 
marked degree all the qualities essential to the make-up 



36 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

of a conspicuously successful lawyer. He had acquired the 
habit of self-education through long practice ; he was studious, 
and his mind easily digested what he read, and retained all 
that was good; he was a persuasive speaker, and as an 
advocate he had a faculty of reaching the sympathies of 
jurors and the reason and conscience of judges; he had a 
ready wit that inflicted no hurt even upon his victims; in 
the difficult work of cross-examination he was keen and 
incisive, always aiming at the central or pivotal point of the 
witness's testimony; he was resourceful, adroit, and alert 
to meet and cope with any surprise that might be sprung by 
the opposition. In a word, he was admirably equipped, 
mentally, intellectually, and temperamentally, to achieve 
signal success at the bar. Even with the admixture of poli- 
tics in his earlier efforts as an attorney, he won his spurs in 
many notable cases. But who shall undertake to decide 
whether it were better for his fellow-men that he should have 
settled down to an uninterrupted law practice, to win fame 
and fortune as a lawyer, or to have adopted the course which 
he did adopt, and leave behind him a record for honesty, 
capacity, adherence to principle, sublime courage, and fidelity 
to the loftiest ideals, that must ever be a powerful incentive 
to young men who are heroically striving to rise superior to 
early drawbacks and disadvantages? Speculation on this 
line would be vain and idle in view of the fact that he drifted 
into a political career, and died in the harness of political 
service. The lesson of his life abides with us. 

In 1873 he was elected a member of the Democratic city 
committee, and became chairman of that body. He was 
continued in the same position during the year 1874 by the 
unanimous vote of his associates. In the latter year he took 
a very prominent part in the campaign which resulted in 
the election of William Gaston as Governor of the Common- 
wealth. When he came to make his staff appointments, 
the new governor offered the honorable post of Judge- 
advocate General to Mr. Collins, who was then in the 
militia service as Judge-advocate of the second brigade, 
M.V.M. Although he won high credit as the legal adviser 
and trial officer of the militia, he never relished the title 
which the office brought to him. He utterly disliked to be 
called General, as he said it forced him frequently to spend 
valuable time in enumerating to strangers the battles 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 37 

which he did not fight and the campaigns that he had not 
won. Not only was a governor elected by the Democratic 
and independent voters in 1874, but also a majority of the 
congressional delegation from the state. Public sentiment 
in Massachusetts was then in revolt against the national 
administration on account of the grave scandals in which 
his friends had involved the good name of President Grant. 
Locally liberal-minded men of all political views protested 
vigorously against the subserviency of the Republican party 
to the prohibitionist cabal that held the balance of power 
and dictated terms to the leaders. This faction had suc- 
ceeded in forcing the nomination of Thomas Talbot, a pro- 
nounced prohibitionist, at the state convention. Gaston 
was a leading figure in Democratic politics. He had been 
mayor of the city of Boston, he was a prominent lawyer, and 
he was popular with the "masses" as well as the "classes." 
Mr. Collins, by nature and political training, was opposed 
to sumptuary legislation of all kinds. With his customary 
vigor and energy he entered into the campaign against pro- 
hibition and undemocratic restriction of personal liberty, 
and when the fight was won, he was allotted a foremost 
place in the leadership of the Democratic forces. This 
would be a notable distinction for any man of thirty to 
achieve, but when account is taken of Mr. Collins' s early 
environment, his trials and struggles in America, and the 
status of the Irish emigrant in the community during the 
formative period of his life, the achievement was well-nigh 
phenomenal. He had a keen recollection of the popular 
excitement created by the appointment of the first "Irish" 
policeman in Boston. As a boy he had joined the curious 
crowd that followed the uniformed Celt on the streets and 
had witnessed the jeers and jokes hurled at him by small 
boys and grown men. And here he stood, an Irish-born 
young man of thirty, on an equality with men like Judge 
Abbott, William Gaston, John Quincy Adams, Frederick 
O. Pruice, Charles Levi Woodbury, and other stalwart 
leaders of the Democracy, — men who sprang from the old 
Puritan stock, and who inherited dominance and power 
in affairs political. 

The land-slide of 1874 was by no means restricted to 
Massachusetts. The opposition party made notable gains 
in every section of the nation. For the first time in twenty 



38 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

years the Democratic party gained control of the popular 
branch of the United States Congress. When that body 
assembled in December, 1875, Michael C. Kerr of Indiana 
was chosen Speaker. The political atmosphere in Wash- 
ington then was permeated with cheerful forebodings of a 
complete national victory in 1876. To aid in bringing that 
about the best energies of the party leaders in all the states 
were enlisted. A tall figure, taller than all the rest, loomed 
up on the political horizon, and to him the thoughts of hope- 
ful Democrats instinctively turned. This was Samuel J. 
Tilden, then governor of the state of New York. Mr. 
Tilden had made a record as a politician and as a reformer. 
He had been chairman of the state committee of his party, 
and he had displayed in that position qualities of leadership 
and an aptitude for organization which attracted wide- 
spread attention. He had served in the state legislature 
with marked distinction, and in a conflict with the Tammany 
organization in New York City he had gained power and 
prestige as a progressive and practical reformer. In the 
tidal wave of 1874 he was elected governor by over fifty 
thousand majority. In this campaign he gathered around 
him a group of young men of rare ability and capacity for 
effective political work. He perfected an organization of the 
Democratic and independent forces of the state which proved 
to be invincible. His followers believed in him implicitly ; 
they felt and acknowledged his power as a leader of men ; 
they recognized his preeminence as an organizer, and they 
respected his lofty purposes as a reformer. He was not a 
faddist nor a theorist. He did not pretend to believe that 
human nature could be changed or reformed by statute. 
He erected no pedestal for his self-enthronement as a purist. 
He believed in honesty in administration and economy in 
the expenditure of the public money, and to effect reform 
in these directions he utilized the material at his hand, 
moulding and applying it with intelligence and vigor. The 
more that people realized the need of a thoroughgoing re- 
former at the White House, the stronger grew the convic- 
tion that Mr. Tilden was the man best qualified for the task 
to be accomplished. 

The Tilden sentiment assumed towering proportions in 
Massachusetts early in 1876. The second administration of 
Grant was very distasteful to the large independent element 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



39 



in the Republican party. Besides the prospect of an im- 
provement in the pohtical and economic conditions, by an 
improvement in the personnel of the administrative forces, 
was not bright. Mr. Blaine, who was the minority leader 
in the House of Representatives, was a most conspicuous 
and persistent aspirant for the office of President, and he 
seemed to be far in the lead of all his competitors. This 
fact gave a powerful impetus to the movement in favor of 
the New York governor. The Democrats of Massachusetts 
saw in Mr. Tilden the Moses who was to lead the party out 
of the wilderness of defeat and despair, and they bent all 
their energies to bring the state into the reform column. 
The revolt against Grant within the Republican lines was 
heightened by a fierce hostility to Blaine. Mr. Tilden and 
his political backers in New York watched with keen in- 
terest the drift of events in Massachusetts, and frequent 
conferences between them and the Democratic leaders of the 
state were held. In these conferences Mr. Collins invari- 
ably took part. At the regular state convention in the 
autumn of 1875, the delegates at large to the national con- 
vention were chosen. Mr. Collins, or General Collins, 
as he was then known, was one of the four. The dele- 
gates were not instructed by formal vote, but the prevailing 
sentiment was favorable to Mr. Tilden. When Mr. Blaine 
was defeated in the Cincinnati convention in July, Mr. 
Hayes of Ohio having captured the prize, there was a slight 
abatement of the revolt within the Republican party in 
Massachusetts. The delegates from the state, with one or 
two exceptions, had favored the nomination of Mr. Bristow 
of Kentucky, but Hayes was not so objectionable as Mr. 
Blaine would have been. The Democrats nominated Mr. 
Tilden at the St. Louis convention and placed him upon 
a platform that called loudly for reform in the adminis- 
trative, economic, and fiscal policies of the government. 
The platform and the man attracted most favorable atten- 
tion among the independent voters of Massachusetts. 
Prior to the assembling of the state convention in Sep- 
tember, there was a sharply fought contest for the guber- 
natorial nomination between former Governor Gaston and 
Charles Francis Adams. Mr. Adams, who was a son 
of President John Quincy Adams, had been United States 
minister to England under Lincoln and Johnson. He 



40 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

was one of the founders of the Republican party. But he 
broke away from it during Grant's administration just as 
he had broken away from the Whig party thirty years 
before because he could no longer subscribe to its 
tenets. 

In August a committee of the Democratic leaders of Mas- 
sachusetts was invited to visit Albany and discuss the guber- 
natorial situation. Governor Tilden was openly in favor 
of the nomination of Adams. He believed that the selection 
of so distinguished a convert to lead the fight would prove 
helpful to the party in the nation. Mr. Collins was a mem- 
ber of the visiting committee. Naturally he leaned toward 
his former chief, Mr. Gaston, and offered excellent reasons 
for the faith that was in him. The friends of Mr. Tilden 
were very desirous of capturing Mr. Collins, first, because 
he was more influential with Mr. Gaston than any other of 
the prominent leaders, and secondly, because he had merci- 
lessly assailed Mr. Adams while he was at the court of St. 
James, for his apparent neglect of the rights of American 
citizens confined in English prisons as "suspects" under 
the Coercion laws enacted especially for Ireland. If Gaston 
could be prevailed upon to withdraw from the contest in 
the interest of harmony, Mr. Collins was just the man to 
point out to him the advantages accruing to the party from 
such a sacrifice; and if Adams should be nominated, it 
would be a sine qua non of success to have him make a 
speech exonerating the former minister to England from 
blame for the supineness of the government with respect to 
the safety and security of Americans sojourning within the 
confines of the British empire during his term of service as 
American minister. By party usage Mr. Gaston was en- 
titled to the nomination, and Mr. Collins, being his friend 
and a stanch party man as well, was necessarily disposed 
to believe that he should get it. But he recognized the 
wisdom and foresight of those who favored the choice of 
Mr. Adams, and the value to the party nationally of the 
selection of a founder of the Republican party, the son of 
one President and the grandson of another, to carry the 
standard of Democracy in a campaign of reform. The 
convention was held in Worcester on September 6. Mr. 
Gaston's name was withdrawn at the opportune moment, 
but not by Mr. Collins, who was steadfastly loyal to the 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 41 

last, and Charles Francis Adams received the unanimous 
nomination of the party. 

In the preliminary canvass for the governorship, the 
opponents of Mr. Adams strove to inflame popular opinion 
among voters of Irish birth and lineage by charging him 
with gross neglect of the lives and liberties of naturalized 
American citizens who were arrested and tried by summary 
process and by special commissions in 1866 and 1867 under 
the Coercion acts passed or revived for the purpose of sup- 
pressing Fenianism. They were able to quote from Mr. 
Collins's speeches and writings in support of their contention 
that a man who could be so unmindful of his duty to his 
oppressed and ill-used fellow-countrymen abroad was not 
fit to be governor of Massachusetts. As may be seen from 
the perusal of a previous chapter, Mr. Collins had fiercely 
assailed Minister Adams for his failure to come to the relief 
of Mr. Stephen Joseph Meany, when that gentleman was 
arrested in England without cause or warrant, smuggled 
over to Ireland, tried, convicted, and sentenced to serve a 
term of fifteen years in prison at hard labor, when there was 
not enough evidence against him to convict a dog of running 
away with a bone. After the convention there were murmurs 
of discontent and disaffection among the Irish societies, 
and Mr. Collins was drafted into the service to suppress 
them. On September 14, just a week after the date of 
the Worcester convention, he addressed a great gathering 
in the town of Marlboro and delivered one of those thrilling 
political speeches which have contributed so abundantly 
to his enduring fame as an effective orator. His defence of 
Mr. Adams was not exactly a recantation or retraction 
of his previously expressed opinions respecting the duties 
of our representatives abroad to protect the rights and con- 
serve the interests of American citizens — native or natu- 
ralized — whenever or by whomsoever assailed or menaced, 
within the country to which they were accredited. It was 
rather an explanation of the conditions existing in England 
during and after our Civil War, — conditions which called 
for much forbearance on both sides, and which imposed 
upon the American minister a task of stupendous propor- 
tions. It would have been very easy just at that time to 
plunge the two countries into war. The people of the 
United States after a fratricidal struggle of four years' dura- 



42 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

tion, involving as it did tremendous sacrifices of life and 
treasure, entertained no desire to indulge in the luxury of 
a foreign war. Then there were the Alabama claims to be 
settled, and numerous other disputes growing out of Eng- 
land's unblushingly manifest sympathy with the rebellion, 
and the open aid rendered by her people in ships, men, and 
supplies to the Confederacy. 

But it was in his manly assertion of the principle for which 
he has ever contended — that there should be no hyphen- 
ated citizenship in American politics — that Mr. Collins 
made his greatest impression upon his Marlboro audience. 
''Born as I was," he said, "in a distant land and under an 
alien flag, nurtured on this soil and instructed in the prin- 
ciples of free government, as a citizen of this Republic, I 
now, as I ever have, denounce any man or any body of men 
who seek to create or perpetuate divisions of races or reli- 
gions in our midst. I kneel at the altar of my fathers and I 
love the land of my birth, but in American politics I know 
neither color, race, nor creed." Alluding to the "impudent 
claim" of the opposition orators and papers that the Irish 
voters would not support Mr. Adams on election day be- 
cause of his conduct while minister to England, Mr. Collins 
said: "Let me say here and now that there are no Irish 
voters among us. There are Irish-born citizens like myself, 
and there will be many more of us, but the moment the seal 
of the court was impressed upon our papers, we ceased to 
be foreigners and became Americans. Americans we are; 
Americans we will remain, and your children, native-born 
men, and mine, I trust will live together in amity and peace 
in this great and free country as Americans. In this lies 
the safety of our institutions, in this is the guarantee of the 
Union." After reviewing the diplomatic difficulties that 
lay in Mr. Adams's path, and pointing to the fact that he was 
merely obeying the orders of his superiors in Washington, 
and carrying out their policy, Mr. Collins further said: 
"Looking back through the past ten years, deeply sym- 
pathizing with the men who suffered at the time I speak 
of, I am satisfied that they would have suffered the same 
whoever was minister to England. The policy of the ad- 
ministration would have been the same ; the agitation would 
have been the same, and the result could not have been 
better or more easily reached. Let us glory in the result. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 43 

and thank God that the agitation is at an end. Now we 
are employed in a new agitation in which all honest citizens 
join. We are fighting another battle for honest government 
in this land. In this we need the aid of every man of brain 
and power and character in the Republic. In this fight 
Charles Francis Adams is with us. That is enough for me. 
The question now is, how shall we trample corruption, check 
extravagance, lighten taxation, and restore prosperity to the 
country. Our candidate for President points the way, 
and Charles Francis Adams heads the marching column 
in Massachusetts. I am in the ranks. I cannot belong to 
the other army. I cannot be a camp follower, a skulker, 
or a deserter. I might prefer another General, but this is 
my General, and him I follow till the battle is done." 

It was a fact that Mr. Adams was soundly abused by the 
Fenian leaders because he was part of the administration 
and for that only. No specific acts were cited by his accusers. 
The charge was general. He was the diplomatic agent of 
the government, carrying out its policy and obeying its in- 
structions. He was constantly treading on dangerous 
ground. On one side was the perilous Alabama case; on 
the other was the Fenian trouble; he was between the 
Scylla and Charybdis of diplomacy. He tried to secure 
aliens' rights for some of the arrested Fenians, but this was 
denied because there was no treaty in force that justified 
such concessions. But he interceded often in behalf of the 
unlucky men and succeeded in saving many lives. He was 
overworked because the complications were many and 
vexatious, and he was practically alone. He was allowed 
just one secretary while the British minister at Washington 
had ten. This secretary of Mr. Adams's was a stupid snob 
who assumed to speak for his chief in his absence. This 
man, in reply to the petitions and entreaties for relief sent 
to the Legation by imprisoned American citizens, wrote 
lectures and homilies as foolish as they were cruel and in- 
sulting. For these unmanly epistles Mr. Adams was held 
responsible by men who did not know the real facts and 
conditions. The Fenian orators at that time took these in- 
sulting letters and made them the basis of their attack upon 
Minister Adams. Strictly speaking, he was responsible for 
the acts of his subordinate. But Mr. Collins was willing to 
look beyond the apparent to the real fact. 



44 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

" And the fact is," he said, " as I have long been persuaded, 
that Mr. Adams did all he could, while carrying out his 
instructions and obeying the order of his superiors. As a 
diplomat he was in all respects successful ; for we must bear 
in mind that the true functions of a diplomat are to carry out 
the policy of his government. The policy of our gov- 
ernment at that time was peace with England. The ad- 
ministration felt, and the majority of our own citizens felt, 
that we had had enough of war. I felt otherwise, but I had 
my reasons. Mr. Adams, you may say, might have de- 
manded his passports and left the country. So indeed he 
might, and some of us might have rejoiced, but that would 
have been the end of him, and he would be remembered only 
in history as a public servant who had disobeyed orders, and 
precipitated two nations into war. Remember always that 
he was the servant of the administration, not the master of 
the situation. The policy of our administration was peace 
with mankind, and Mr. Adams was true to his trust." 

This speech was printed as a campaign document and 
was circulated throughout the state. It exercised a potent 
influence upon the minds of voters of Irish birth and lineage 
who had been influenced by the stories printed in the oppo- 
sition press and by the appeals of political demagogues to 
race prejudice on the platform. In the same pamphlet 
which contained Mr. CoUins's speech, were printed several 
letters from naturalized citizens who had been imprisoned 
in England, testifying to Mr. Adams's solicitude for their 
welfare and comfort. Lastly there was included in the pub- 
lication a portion of a lecture delivered by Mr. Adams at 
Syracuse, New York, in 1855, in which he denounced 
Know-nothingism as the lowest form of political and religious 
fanaticism. Mr. Adams was unsparing in his invectives 
against the secret, dark-lantern cabal that would exclude 
foreign-born men from the privileges of citizenship. "Had 
such patriotism as this prevailed," said Mr. Adams, "in the 
heroic age of the Republic when the word ' virtue ' implied 
courage, capacity, and honor all in one, George Washington 
could not have run the noblest career that ever fell to the lot 
of man ; Lafayette and Montgomery, Charles Lee, Sterling, 
Pulaski, Steuben, and DeKalb, who shed their blood — nay, 
some of whom laid down their lives — in the cause of a land 
not their own by birth, would be placed in a scale of merit 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 45 

beneath the mercenary treachery of a native like Benedict 
Arnold, and in the calculating trickery of the school of 
Aaron Burr." Mr. Collins spoke during the campaign in 
every section of the state, urging men of his race not to be 
misled or duped by specious arguments. How effective 
was his advocacy of Mr. Adams's cause was shown in the 
election returns. Mr. Hayes carried the state by a plurality 
of 41,286 over Tilden. Rice, the Republican candidate for 
governor, had a plurality of only 30,815 over Adams. Hayes 
led Rice by 12,398 votes, and Tilden led Adams by only 
1927 votes. 

Mr. Collins did not confine or limit his activity to Massa- 
chusetts during the campaign. He delivered speeches in 
Albany, New York, Buffalo, Cleveland, Ohio, and in several 
cities in Indiana, New Jersey, and Connecticut. He was 
received everywhere with enthusiastic plaudits, and his elo- 
quent exposition of the principles of democracy made a 
lasting impression upon the minds of his hearers. With Mr. 
Tilden's political entourage he was exceedingly popular. 
They admired his eloquence, his honesty of purpose, his 
fervor, and his devotion to the fundamental principles of 
Jeffersonian Democracy. They respected his judgment 
of men and conditions; they listened with deep interest to 
his suggestions in matters of political strategy, and they 
admired his brilliancy of speech and his keen and ready wit. 
He was a prime favorite in the higher councils of the party, 
and if Mr. Tilden had come into the presidency, as he should 
have come had he received "a square deal," Mr. Collins 
would have been called into the service of the nation. He 
could have had his choice of a cabinet place, a foreign mis- 
sion, or the collectorship at the port of Boston. And it is not 
wholly a betrayal of a secret to say now that he would have 
accepted the last-named post. Nor is it a violation of con- 
fidence to assert that the suggestion came to him unsolicited 
and unexpected, and not as a reward for party service, but as a 
recognition of his ability, integrity, and high character as a 
man. 



CHAPTER IV 

The Land-league Agitation on Both Sides of the Atlantic — 
Collins and Parnell as Leaders of a Great Agrarian Move- 
ment — Rise and Growth of the Parliamentary Party — An 
Ovation to Collins in Ireland. 

THE strenuous activity of Mr. Collins in the national 
campaign of 1876 and in two succeeding state cam- 
paigns in Massachusetts did not deter him from 
taking a deep and active interest in the political affairs of 
his native land. The new leadership for which he hoped 
and prayed after the collapse of the Fenian movement 
was looming up large in Ireland. Those who had de- 
spaired of doing anything practical for the Irish people 
saw hope and promise in the parliamentary agitation con- 
ducted by Isaac Butt and his little Irish party. Another 
class of patriots clung to the physical-force idea and kept 
alive the secret societies which had barely survived the drastic 
measures adopted by the government to extinguish the 
Fenian organization. It must in truth be said that the 
Queen's ministers were aided in their work of demolition 
and extinction by the lethal influences of internal dissensions. 
Mr. William O'Brien in a recent volume of reminiscences 
contends that there is a subtle attraction for the Irish mind 
in the secret society, which is due largely to the congenital 
Gaelic love of mystery and also to the traditional belief in 
secret plotting, born of seven centuries of stealthy associa- 
tion and clandestine action in behalf of faith and country. 
But he roundly condemns secret societies as a safe and 
reliable factor in working out the national salvation. Wher- 
ever men are banded together, especially in Ireland, for 
secret, political, or revolutionary purposes, there is sure to 
be in their ranks and high up in their councils the informer. 
"A professional traitor," he writes, ''is always one of its 
(the secret society's) most active spirits, and sometimes its 
principal organizer. In the nature of things a secret society, 

46 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 47 

especially in its declining stages, offers no test of the capacity 
of leaders, discourages finer minds, and ends by giving 
the upper hand to the intriguers, the incapables, or the base." 
This was his settled view after he had tried both parlia- 
mentary agitation and secret plotting. Not that he was 
opposed to a physical-force element as an adjunct to consti- 
tutional agitation, for he expresses the belief that if O'Con- 
nell and Butt had recognized the value and potency of such 
an element working along moral-force lines, the results of 
their respective movements would have been more lasting 
and more beneficial to the country than they were. 

Mr. Collins visited Ireland during the transition period, 
when constitutional or parliamentary agitation had not 
come to be recognized as a solvent for the congested and 
concentrated ills of landlord oppression and governmental 
coercion, and when popular faith in the superiority of physi- 
cal force and secret societies had not been wholly destroyed, 
despite the awful disclosure^ of the government's spies and 
informers. Butt's parliamentary campaigns had produced 
meagre results, and the country looked on listlessly, while a 
small group of well-meaning men tried in vain to get even a 
patient hearing at Westminster. Mr, Butt believed in main- 
taining a dignified and semi-pacific attitude toward the gov- 
ernment while the government tightened its grip upon the 
land and the liberties of Ireland. He was polite, deferential, 
and respectful in his demeanor, and he resented the recal- 
citrancy of some of his followers who were blazing the path to 
parliamentary success by the flaming torch of obstruction. 
Like many other great leaders of epochal political movements 
in Ireland, he was a Protestant in religion. He was born and 
reared in Ulster, and in his early life he absorbed the harsh, 
unrelenting hatred which the typical Ulster Orangeman 
entertains for his Catholic neighbor. In politics he was a 
Tory, as Trinity graduates of his day were apt to be. He 
drifted into the Home Rule movement by easy stages, and 
the earnest Home Rulers, recognizing his ability, his honesty, 
and his parliamentary skill, made him their leader. It was 
his ambition to wipe out the religious lines which divided 
men holding common political views, and to create in fact 
as well as in name a united Ireland, but he failed in this as he 
failed in his effort to hold his followers together upon any 
vital question. He never won the support of the revolu- 



48 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

tionists who had little faith in his methods or in his party, 
and who scouted parliamentary agitation as a waste of 
energy. He accomplished nothing of value in the line of 
progressive legislation. He went through successive ses- 
sions of Parliament without securing a single concession 
in the direction of Home Rule or land reform. He worked 
hard and with skill and intelligence, but he and his measures 
were overwhelmingly rejected by both English parties while 
he and his followers were jeered and denounced by turns. 
John Bull refused to listen to the story of Ireland's wrongs 
or needs. 

During Butt's leadership Charles Stewart Parnell entered 
Parliament. On the occasion of his first taking his seat in 
the Commons Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, then chief secre- 
tary for Ireland in Disraeli's government, was engaged in 
administering one of the periodic English remedies for Irish 
ills. He was forcing a coercion bill through the House. 
The purpose of this and other measures of its kind was to 
suspend the operation of the laws of the Empire in Ireland, 
and to confer upon the Dublin executive and the police 
unlimited license to arrest and imprison without trial and 
without proof of guilt. Mr. Butt wanted to delay the first 
reading of the bill, and he asked one of the members of his 
party to make a speech against time. The member selected 
was Joseph Gillis Biggar, who sat for a division of County 
Cavan. Mr. Biggar was a unique figure in the House. He 
was a hunchback, and in his conflicts with his English col- 
leagues of high or low degree or rank he sometimes displayed 
qualities that Daniel Quilp might envy. He was a Belfast 
Presbyterian, the son of a prosperous pork dealer whose 
business he inherited. He was illiterate, uneducated, but he 
had natural ability and inherited shrewdness. In time he 
learned to talk on his feet, but his chief amusement, and the 
occupation from which he derived the most delight and 
entertainment, was harrying certain gentlemen on the 
treasury bench. It was his custom to move up close to one 
of these statesmen while he was excoriating the Irish party, 
and, by grimaces, interruptions, and groans, to worry him 
into a fit of passion that was sure to mar the effect of his 
speech. On the night in question Mr. Biggar secured the 
floor and spoke for nearly four hours. Nobody had the right 
to interfere ; even the prime minister and the speaker were 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 49 

powerless. Nor was he obliged to speak to the question 
before the House. Under the rules then prevailing he might 
discuss any subject that suited his fancy for the moment, 
without forfeiting his right to the floor. Starting out with a 
protest against the government's purpose to restrict or de- 
stroy constitutional guarantees in Ireland, he gradually 
drifted into a presentation of some novel views with respect 
to the Established Church. Being a Dissenter his criti- 
cism of the Episcopal services was naturally severe, but he 
was particularly ferocious when he came to denounce 
Ritualism which he stigmatized as man-millinery. Later 
on when obstruction became the chosen weapon of a larger 
and more homogeneous party under Parnell's leadership, 
T. M. Healey was blocking the business of the House by an 
eloquent, if irrelevant, speech punctuated with sallies of keen 
wit and biting sarcasm. Casting about for a new subject 
unrelated to the question at issue, his eye caught a glimpse 
of a red stocking on the foot of a government supporter who 
had thrown his feet negligently and carelessly over a chair. 
At once he shifted the ground of his argument, and held up, 
as it were, this specimen of scarlet haberdashery as something 
that fitly typified the bloody reign of castle brutality and 
landlord cruelty in Ireland. 

Mr. Biggar revelled in obstruction. Any device or scheme 
which blocked business or crippled the legislative machinery 
appealed strongly to his fiercely intense nature. Neither 
the dignity of the House itself nor the sensibilities of indi- 
viduals, however high their station, were safe while he was 
rampant. He scoffed at sentiment, and his contempt for 
the feelings of his foes was as strong and as marked as was 
his contempt for the rules of procedure. On one occasion 
when a highly important debate drew to the House a vast 
crowd of government supporters and society people, the 
Prince of Wales, now King Edward VII, occupied, with a 
distinguished party of friends, a section of the ofiQcial gallery. 
Occupancy of any portion of the House by strangers can be 
permitted only by unanimous consent, the absence of ob- 
jection sufficing to establish such consent. When the gov- 
ernment leader was well into his formal address Mr. Biggar 
arose and informed the speaker that he espied strangers in 
the gallery, whereupon Mr. Speaker ordered the Sergeant-at- 
Arms to clear the gallery. This functionary interpreted his 



50 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

order to mean the removal of the miscellaneous crowd in 
the strangers' gallery, and he executed it to this extent only. 
The debate was resumed on the restoration of order. Mr. 
Biggar solemnly arose again and informed the speaker that 
he espied strangers in the gallery. Murmurs of indignation 
arose as this privilege of an individual member was thus 
relentlessly exercised. These murmurs and protests were 
as music to Mr. Biggar' s ears. The Sergeant-at-Arms 
again entered the gallery and removed some very distin- 
guished visitors, but, of course, did not disturb the royal 
party. Again amid a storm of fierce denunciation and 
loud shouts of indignation Mr. Biggar "espied strangers" 
and conveyed the information to the speaker, but before the 
Sergeant-at-Arms could reach the gallery the Prince of Wales 
and his guests retired from the precincts of the House. This 
one act did more to arouse the sluggish mind of John Bull 
to a realization of the real temper of Ireland than all the 
ornate disquisitions of Isaac Butt during his parliamentary 
career. It also opened the eyes of the Irish party to the pos- 
sibilities for reprisal in parliamentary obstruction. 

On another occasion when Mr. Gladstone referred in 
debate with paternal tenderness to his son Herbert, later a 
cabinet minister himself, Biggar elfishly and viciously sug- 
gested that he apprentice ''Young Hopeful" to the chief 
hangman for service in Ireland. During a heated debate 
on coercion, when all the batteries of Irish eloquence and 
Irish invective were belching and blazing at Chief Secretary 
Forster, and battering down his feeble defences, the veteran 
Premier arose, and in pathetic tones tried to still the storm 
and mitigate its fury. He was a master of the art of concilia- 
tion by honeyed words; he could touch the hearts even of 
those who opposed and hated him. Here was an occasion 
which called for his noblest effort. "Honorable members," 
he said in the mellowest tones he could command, and while 
the House was softened and subdued by the solemnity of the 
occasion and the pathos of his voice and language, "will 
perhaps give more indulgence to my appeal because in the 
nature of things I cannot hope that my voice will be heard 
much longer in this House." The words of the venerable 
statesman struck the tenderest chord in the human system, 
and deathly stillness reigned over the House. But Mr. 
Biggar felt none of the effects of this pathetic allusion to the 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 51 

Grand Old Man's advancing years. He was fighting the 
battle of the Irish people, and it was no sentimental conflict ; 
it was a fight to the death. And so when that solemn sen- 
tence was uttered, during a most impressive pause in the 
fierce struggle, a croaking, raucous voice gave vent to its 
owner's approval of the prospective disappearance of the 
great Liberal leader by shouting "Hear, hear!" The 
shock which the great legislative assembly felt was electrical. 
It stunned members of all parties equally. The blow was 
brutal in its purpose and effect. But Mr. Biggar felt he 
had done a service to the cause of his country, and it was for 
that purpose he held his seat in Parliament. To obstruct 
the passage of a Coercion bill or to break the force of a speech 
that might work injury to the principles he cherished was to 
him the highest form of public service. 

Charles Stewart Parnell entered Parliament as a follower 
of Butt. He subscribed to the party pledge when he was 
chosen to contest the seat made vacant by the death of 
John Martin who sat for a division of County Meath, and 
who had been an active figure in the Young Ireland move- 
ment of 1848. Nobody ever discovered the real reason of 
Parnell's affiliation with the Home Rule party. From asso- 
ciation and environment he should have been on the other 
side. He was a landlord and a government office-holder. 
He was high sheriff of County Wicklow, and an officer in the 
local militia, a position rarely held in Ireland by anybody 
except a Tory. He was an inveterate cricketer and he "rode 
to the hounds," with the neighboring squires and other rep- 
resentatives of that limited class in Ireland known as the 
gentry. He was a young gentleman of leisure and of means, 
and he never had given his associates or intimates the slightest 
hint of an ambition to enter the arena of politics. He was a 
kind and considerate landlord; he encouraged his tenants 
to be industrious and frugal by permitting them to enjoy 
the fruits of their thrift and foresight, instead of increasing 
their rent in proportion as they improved their holdings, 
as most of his neighbors did. The story goes, but I will not 
vouch for its truth, that at an assemblage of the tenant 
farmers of Wicklow he gave utterance to words of sympathy 
with their efforts to secure better terms from their landlords, 
and that an intimation came to him some weeks later that 
such sentiments as he was reported to have expressed were 



52 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

inconsistent with his position as high sheriff of the county. 
This rebuke angered him. He felt that his position in the 
county deprived him of his independence as a man, and he 
resolved to cut loose from the shrievalty and other govern- 
mental offices and entanglements. The Coercion acts 
passed by successive Parliaments and enforced so rigorously 
by the Dublin executive and the constabulary and soldiery 
made a deep impression upon his mind. The execution of 
three Fenians in Manchester, England, in 1867, and the 
extraordinary demonstration which was made in Ireland on 
that occasion stirred his blood and excited his ire. While 
he was in college the police paid a domiciliary visit to the 
family seat at Avondale, near the ''meeting of the waters" 
in the vale of Avoca, and searched the house for arms and 
for suspected revolutionists. This was a power conferred 
upon the police by the Coercion acts, and it was exercised in 
the rudest and most brutal manner. His mother told him on 
his next visit to his home that the police not only searched the 
outhouses and grounds, but forcibly entered her own sleep- 
ing apartments in quest of phantom fugitives from justice or 
injustice and imaginary arms. Mr. Parnell said, with his 
customary calmness, that if he had been present, he would 
have shot the policeman as he would have shot a mad dog. 
These incidents inclined him toward the popular side of the 
great controversy, — the side of the people as against the 
government. 

As has been stated already, Mr. Parnell took his seat in the 
House of Commons on the evening when Mr. Biggar pre- 
vented the reading of Sir Michael Hicks-Beach's Coercion 
act by a four hours' speech. The success of the scheme 
made a deep impression upon the new member. He was not 
very well versed in parliamentary procedure, and he knew 
little of political history. But he knew enough to know 
that when an Irish question was brought before Parliament, 
both the great English parties combined to throw it out sum- 
marily, or, if they permitted it to get on the calendar at all, 
to kill it by an overwhelming adverse majority when it was 
reached. If he had formed any purpose, or had marked out 
any plan to pursue, it had relation to some scheme by which 
the House of Commons would be forced to listen to the 
recital of Irish grievances. Nobody listened to Mr. Biggar 
on this historic night, and if anybody had paid heed to his 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 53 

speech, he could have gained very little information respecting 
the needs of Ireland. But Mr. Biggar blocked the business 
of the House. He checked the progress of a Coercion bill. 
He had demonstrated anew that the rules of the House of 
Commons could be used successfully to paralyze that vener- 
able assembly and place the public business at the mercy of a 
few resourceful and resolute men. This done it would be 
feasible to get a hearing on an important and urgent Irish 
question. 

Parnell's distinguishing traits were courage, resolution, and 
reserve.^ Once he adopted a line of action, he could never be 
swerved from it by any human influence. He never wavered, 
and he rarely confided to anybody, however close to him per- 
sonally or politically, his policy or his purposes. These 
qualities gave him the leadership of a great party and the 
absolute power of direction over a great national movement. 
They made him a statesman of the first rank. 

Mr. Parnell was the grandson of Admiral Stewart who 
commanded the old frigate Co7istitution, of the prowess of 
which Boston has always been particularly proud. His 
father, John Henry Parnell, visited America in the early 
forties. He met Delia Stewart, the commodore's daughter, 
who was a famous beauty and a leader in Washington so- 
ciety. He fell in love with her, proposed, and was accepted. 
They were married in New York. The Parnells were of 
English origin, but they became intensely Irish, and for three 
generations they took part in every patriotic movement for 
the amelioration of Ireland's condition. When Ireland had 
a Parliament of her own. Sir John Parnell was Chancellor 

^ During his tour of the United States the late Lord Randolph 
Churchill cast some reflections upon Mr. Parnell's associations and 
upon his family. In the course of a speech in Springfield, Massachusetts, 
Mr. Parnell made a sharp reply. Among other things he said that his 
family history on both sides could be traced back farther than that of 
the Churchill family without striking anybody like Sarah Jennings. 
This retort was cabled to London, and there was talk of a duel on his 
return to England. On the evening following the Springfield meeting 
I met him at the Parker House in Boston and asked him whether he 
expected to be called out. Slowly and carefully he repHed: "I don't 
think Lord Randolph Churchill will insist on a 'meeting.' The advan- 
tages are all on my side. I am a young man, unmarried. I have 
nobody depending on me who would be left in want if anything 
happened to me. He has a wife and family. No, I don't expect a 
challenge." 



54 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

of the Exchequer, and when Lord Castlereagh betrayed his 
country by establishing the union, Sir John was one of the 
foremost opponents of the nefarious scheme. William Par- 
nell, the grandfather of Charles, wrote several pamphlets 
in support of the Catholic claims, and John Henry Parnell, 
his father, was a prominent Liberal leader in Leinster. 
Charles came, therefore, from splendid stock. He was half 
American and half Irish, and on both sides his forefathers 
were men of high character and lofty position among their 
fellows. 

It would be difficult to select two men apparently less 
fitted for the work of obstruction than Parnell and Biggar. 
Neither possessed the faculty of oratory, and both detested 
public speaking. They were utterly dissimilar in manner, 
habits of thought, personal appearance, and training. Parnell 
was a gentleman ; Biggar was a shop-keeper. Parnell was a 
university man; Biggar never went beyond the curriculum 
of a national school, and while in that he refused to learn 
anything but mathematics. Parnell was graceful in bearing, 
almost handsome; Biggar was deformed, ugly, uncouth. 
They had one thing in common, however, and that was love 
of country, coupled with intense hatred of her oppressors. 
This made them partners in obstruction. Their plan of 
action, which was developed and extended as experience 
opened up new possibilities, was to take a bill presented 
by the government and load it down with amendments. 
These amendments, some of which were designed to perfect 
the measure while others were utterly useless if not frivolous, 
were duly filed according to the customs of the House and 
the rules of procedure. Opportunity for discussion was 
well-nigh limitless. Mr. Parnell would take a particular 
amendment and explain it in halting phrase and with almost 
painful hesitancy. If the member of the Cabinet having the 
matter in charge vouchsafed a reply, which he rarely did at 
the outset, Mr. Parnell returned to the charge. If no reply 
was made, Mr. Biggar would arise in his place and inform 
the speaker that he had been convinced by the arguments of 
his honorable friend from Meath of the necessity of amending 
the bill as proposed. Or perhaps he disputed the position 
taken by his honorable friend, whereupon he would consume 
half an hour or more in pointing out the defects in his argu- 
ment. This afforded Mr. Parnell an opportunity to defend 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



55 



his position and to expose the weakness of the argument 
of the honorable member for Cavan. And so it went ad 
mfinitum. As the partners in obstruction became more 
expert in their work, they frequently succeeded in amending 
government measures materially. But the real purpose to 
be accomplished was to compel the House to give respectful 
attention to the demands of the Irish members. This came 
to pass eventually, but not until the most violent scenes had 
been enacted and until the venerable assembly was forced to 
acknowledge defeat under its own rules, by breaking them 
ruthlessly and amending them so as to give the ministry 
power to get their bills passed. 

The success of obstruction aroused extraordinary enthu- 
siasm in Ireland. At last parliamentary agitation was 
doing something! The friends of constitutional methods 
were elated, while the extreme physical-force advocates were 
correspondingly depressed. The moderates in both camps 
saw simultaneously the value of closer political relations ; a 
new national party with a new leadership and new respon- 
sibilities became the logical outcome of existing conditions. 
Parnell was the figure around whom this new combination 
of forces was perceptibly rallying. He had displayed the 
requisite courage as a fighter in the House of Commons ; he 
had exhibited superb qualities of skill and tact as a par- 
liamentarian, and it was quite evident that the mantle of Butt 
must soon fall upon his shoulders. I recall an estimate of 
the man which Mr. Collins made and expressed after a visit 
to Ireland and England while the tactics of obstruction were , 
demonstrating their power to disjoint and dislocate the 
machinery of Parliament. " Parnell," he said, " is splendidly 
equipped for the leadership. He is cool, collected, calm, and 
courageous. He is not an orator, and that fact may be to 
his detriment for a time, but he will outgrow the defect. He 
possesses common sense which is far more valuable than 
mere oratorical power and skill, and he always says some- 
thing when he rises. Moreover, he is of the upper classes, 
and the Irish people like to follow representatives of the gen- « 
try and aristocracy." 

About this time ominous portents of another famine were 
plainly discernible. There was a noticeable falling-off in 
the volume of the potato crop which constituted then the 
chief food staple of the agricultural laborers and the small 



56 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

farmers. The crop was short in 1877 and shorter still in 
1878, a fact which showed that the tuber disease was spread- 
ing. In 1879 the perilous limit of decay and rot reached 
in 1848 was approached, and those who were able to appre- 
ciate agricultural and industrial conditions very properly 
took alarm. Thom's Directory, a standard publication, 
gives the money value of the potato crop in Ireland in 1876 as 
^12,464,382; in 1878 the value dropped to ;^7,579,5i2. 
Here was a falling-off in two years of nearly one-half in the 
chief item of food supply. And the end was not yet. 
The year 1879 showed a further drop in volume and value. 
The crisis was on. It was a fight for the life of a people. The 
terrible experiences of the last famine in 1846- 1849 were 
familiar to the men who had the responsibility of leadership, 
and they resolved that a herculean effort should and must 
be made to prevent a recurrence of the awful scenes of death 
and despair which made that brief period the darkest in 
Ireland's sad history. 

Mr, Michael Davitt, who only recently had been released 
from prison, at the expiration of one-half of a term of four- 
teen years imposed on account of treason-felony (plotting 
against the Crown), had been preaching land reform for 
over a year throughout England and Ireland. He was the 
son of a farmer who was evicted from his little holding in the 
west of Ireland during the famine of 1846- 1849. It was his 
recollection of the brutality of the soldiery, the bailiffs and 
the constabulary on that occasion which made him what he 
was then, and what he is now, — the sworn foe of landlord 
aggression and persecution. He found the people ready for 
agrarian revolt. The burning words of his fiery eloquence 
fell upon rich soil which bore ripe fruit in abundance. The 
people had read with breathless interest and intense eager- 
ness the glowing descriptions of Parnell's masterly fight 
against fierce odds in the House of Commons, The story 
of his victories brought new hopes to the people, and thus 
paved the way for the land agitation which aroused popular 
interest in America and Australia, as well as in the British 
Isles. Davitt organized the Land League, and the tenets 
of the new association quietly but steadily spread from the 
impoverished West to the more fortunate Leinster, and 
lastly into Protestant Ulster. In Munster it was taken up 
as a cloak for the continuation of the revolutionary propa- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 57 

ganda. Soon it extended its antennae to the United States 
where it grew to enormous proportions under the sunny skies 
of a free land. The remnants of the old Fenian organiza- 
tion that had kept together in the states had dropped back 
to the secret society plan of operation, and what work they 
did was done under cover. Some of the more sagacious 
leaders saw the value of an open movement along constitu- 
tional lines, and they urged their followers to join it, perhaps 
with a view to capture and control it later on. 

It was when Mr. Parnell placed himself at its head that 
the great land agitation assumed national proportions. He 
had become the idol of the masses, and they were prepared to 
follow whithersoever he might choose to lead. His leader- 
ship instilled hope and courage everywhere. The farmers 
resolved, under the inspiration of his genius, not to imitate 
the supineness of their fathers who surrendered in 1846- 
1849, and gave themselves and their families up to the terrors 
of eviction, hunger, plague, and exile. They would fight 
for their lives and their hearthstones ; they would organize, 
agitate, resist. They would heed the voice of their leader 
who told them plainly that they had a lien upon the first 
fruits of the land which they tilled and upon the crops which 
they harvested. "You must show the landlords," he said, 
"that you intend to hold a firm grip on your homesteads 
and land." The first problem confronting the organization 
in Ireland was to avert as far as possible the threatened 
famine. This could be accomplished in two ways: first, 
by aiding the people financially, and secondly, by the tenants 
refusing to pay anything in the form of rent except what was 
an excess over the actual needs of themselves and their 
families. The League appropriated a portion of its funds 
for relief, and began at once to make provision against the 
wholesale evictions which were sure to follow the practical 
application of the policy proposed. Meanwhile Mr. Par- 
nell decided to visit America and to lay before the enlightened 
public opinion of the country the exact status of the tenant 
farmers of Ireland, the causes operating to produce the de- 
plorable condition existing and threatened, and to ask for 
moral and financial aid. The Irish leader's fame had pre- 
ceded him, and his visit was viewed with the keenest interest. 
Being half American and half Irish, he appealed to a vast 
majority of the people, and to the Irish portion in particular 



58 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

because of his brilliant success as a parliamentarian. He 
had won his fight for publicity; the grievances of Ireland 
were known to the world ; John Bull no longer had a monop- 
oly of information respecting the Irish demands; he con- 
trolled no longer the ear of the world through subsidized 
press agencies. The story of Ireland's ills had been widely 
published. In anticipation of his American tour the leading 
newspapers published extended reports of the debates in 
Parliament; special correspondents overran Ireland in 
search of information on the famine question ; biographical 
sketches of Parnell and his lieutenants were printed in the 
great journals of the land, while students of economic 
questions and specialists on agrarian and fiscal subjects made 
contributions to the magazines. 

One discordant note was struck in the almost universal 
concert of friendly approval in America. For some un- 
known reason, and through some mysterious influence, Mr. 
James Gordon Bennett was induced to antagonize Mr. 
Parnell and to do what lay in his power, as the proprietor 
of an influential journal, to discredit his mission. On the 
day of the Irish leader's arrival in New York the Herald 
printed a broadside against the cause which he had come 
across the ocean to champion. Simultaneously Mr. Bennett 
opened a popular subscription to a famine fund and started 
the list with a handsome contribution. But the people 
whose sense of anticipation had been whetted by the widely 
published stories of Parnell' s work and his personality paid 
little heed to Mr. Bennett's clumsy attempt at diversion. 
They wanted to see and to hear the hero of obstruction, the 
undaunted champion of Irish liberty, and they refused to be 
swerved from their purpose by an American Tory trick. 
Mr. Parnell's tour of the United States and Canada was a 
triumphal march. He addressed some of the largest audi- 
ences ever assembled in behalf of any cause. Governors 
of states, mayors of cities, members of both branches of Con- 
gress, eminent lawyers, progressive merchants, in fact the 
great throbbing, pulsating masses of the people of all grades 
of station, and all shades of opinion listened to him and 
cheered him lustily. What was better still they gave of their 
money liberally, — some for famine prevention and some 
for agitation purposes. At his meetings nearly ;^75,ooo 
was subscribed. The exceptional honor was also paid to 



MENU CARD, WITH SIGNATURES, AT MR. PARNELL'S DINNER 
TO MR. COLLINS, IN LONDON 




^^>>--.,;;::^:^;= 3^ 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



59 



him of an opportunity to address the lower house of Congress 
in its own chamber. He spoke for half an hour very feelingly 
and very forcibly upon the situation in Ireland, picturing the 
scenes of disaster and wreck which the landlords were 
enacting by a policy of eviction while their poor tenants were 
threatened with starvation. As to the morality and justice 
of the program designed by the League to minimize the suf- 
fering of the small farmers and the peasantry, he quoted from 
Dr. Croke, the venerable Catholic archbishop of Cashel 
who defined a fair rent as follows: ''The man who labors 
on the soil, be he farmer or agricultural laborer, has the first 
claim upon its fruits. The commissioners under the land 
act would do well to bear this fact in mind, and so to reduce 
rents all over the country as to enable the tiller of the soil 
to be wholesomely fed, fairly clothed, and suitably housed, 
besides making all other needful provisions for himself and 
his family. Whatever remains after that is a fair rent. It 
belongs to the owner of the soil, and the man who withholds 
it from him does a patent wrong and is guilty of a great 
injustice." 

Parnell's tour of America paved the way for the establish- 
ment of the Land League. Friends of the cause of Irish 
Home Rule and land reform from all sections of the country 
were consulted by Michael Davitt, who undertook the task 
of building up a permanent organization which would be 
able to supply the Irish party with funds for agitation pur- 
poses. Mr. Collins and John Boyle O'Reilly were among 
the first of the prominent Irishmen to give hearty approval 
to the scheme, provided the principles laid down were sound 
and safe. They went to New York and helped to set up a 
provisional organization which was to hold until a national 
convention could be held. Branches were formed in all the 
large cities of the Union, and these Mr. Davitt and other 
emissaries of the parent body visited and encouraged by 
precept and example. The first national convention was 
called to meet in Buffalo, New York, in January, 1881. It 
was made up of delegates representing upwards of one 
hundred and fifty branches scattered over the United States. 
After a two days' session Mr. Collins was elected president 
of the American Land League. He accepted the honor and 
responsibility, and went to work promptly to carry out the 
purposes and policies of the order. He was then a prac- 



6o LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

tising lawyer, but he was willing to devote a portion of his 
time to the cause which he had so much at heart. He trav- 
elled through the larger cities of New England, speaking 
sometimes thrice a week, and scrupulously defrayed his own 
expenses. He even paid the cable tolls on messages sent to 
the executive offices in Dublin and Paris. For fifteen months 
he devoted himself to this work at "tremendous sacrifice of 
time, money, and energy." And when he surrendered the 
office to his successor in 1882 at the Washington conven- 
tion, he was privileged to report that there were fifteen hun- 
dred branches in active affiliation with the American League, 
and that the organization had sent over $400,000 to the 
treasurer of the Irish Land League in Dublin for purposes 
of organization and agitation. It was this fund with others, 
raised by individuals, which enabled Mr. Parnell and his 
followers to carry on the fierce struggle forced upon them by 
the government, and to support the evicted tenants who had 
refused to pay the exorbitant rents exacted by the land- 
lords. 

A few years afterward Mr. Collins went to Europe on 
a vacation trip. While he was in London Mr. Parnell gave 
a dinner in his honor at which all the members of the Irish 
parliamentary party that were in the country at the time 
were present as guests. In feeling language the host re- 
ferred to the services rendered to Ireland by his distinguished 
guest at the most critical stage of the agitation for land reform 
and self-government. If it had not been for the splendid 
work of the American League under Mr. Collins's leadership 
and guidance, he said, it would have been impossible for 
them to keep up the fight. They did keep it up, thanks to 
generous America, and they were permitted to see the prin- 
ciples, for which they contended and which were then de- 
nounced as revolutionary by both English parties, made the 
dominant issue and the successful issue in a general election. 
In behalf of the whole Irish people Mr. Parnell thanked his 
guest for his distinguished services to Ireland and his un- 
selfish devotion to her cause. Mr. Collins, in reply to the 
complimentary remarks of the distinguished leader of the 
Irish parliamentary party, said that he was not in London 
in any representative capacity. He had no authority to 
speak for anybody but himself. He was merely an idle 
wanderer passing through the modern Babylon, or Babel, 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 61 

on his way to his native land; but he was proud, he said, 
to be with the Httle band of Irish patriots to whom the 
destinies and the fortunes of Ireland had been committed 
and intrusted during the past five years. "Gentlemen," 
he said, "I remarked that I came here for a little vacation, 
but I might say I also came to see how fares the Irish cause 
at home, and I may say that those of us at the other side 
of the Atlantic who have been, from day to day, looking 
prayerfully at your conduct, who have heard your voices 
from the chamber yonder, from the hustings, from the 
court-room, and from the jails — I say it seems to us that 
Ireland has made more progress toward happiness and 
self-government during the last few years for her people 
than during the century before. As to that greater Ireland 
beyond the seas to which Mr. Parnell refers, I say that we 
have become Americans, but we have not ceased to be 
Irish. When next I visit this country I hope to be able 
to note another stride forward; I hope, sir, to see you at 
the head of an Irish government, as you have long been 
first in the hearts of the Irish race wherever the sun shines. 
We did some service in the United States, and we did it 
because it was our sacred duty." He said further that the 
Irish people in America would support and sustain the 
"men in the gap" so long as they kept up the fight for self- 
government. It was not for them to dictate but to follow 
where Parnell and his party led. Amid a wild scene of 
enthusiasm Mr. Collins closed his speech with this toast, 
"Prosperity to the Irish people and self-government for 
Ireland." 

When Mr. Parnell thanked Mr. Collins in behalf and in 
the name of the Irish people, he uttered no idle boast. He 
could speak for that people as no man before him or since 
could speak. He was in the zenith of his fame and his power 
as a leader of men. Under his lead the people of Ireland 
had demonstrated afresh the strength that lies in union and 
in harmonious, concerted action. Just about the time that 
he was entertaining Mr. Collins in London, the great mu- 
nicipal corporations of Dublin and Cork and the smaller 
cities and towns of Ireland were preparing to do honor to his 
guest as he passed through their borders. Men all over 
Ireland begged and prayed for a sight of the son of Cork 
who had won high honors in free America and who had 



62 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

been the leader of the great Land League which rendered 
such timely and generous aid to Parnell and his little band 
of brilliant lieutenants. He was lionized and feted every- 
where in Ireland from his landing in Belfast until the de- 
parture of the tender which took him from the quay at 
Queenstown to the steamer that was to bear him back to 
his American home. 

On August 2, the freedom of the city of Dublin which had 
been previously voted by the corporation was conferred 
upon him with most elaborate ceremonies, and a state 
banquet was tendered to him on the evening of the same 
day by the Lord Mayor. The ceremony at the City Hall 
was most impressive. Soon after one o'clock the Lord 
Mayor, the Right Honorable T. D. Sullivan, entered the 
council chamber where a majority of the aldermen and 
the town councillors were assembled. In seats reserved for 
them were the members of Mr. Collins' s travelling party 
including his brother-in-law, Mr. John J. Collins, whom 
the newspaper reporters insisted upon designating as his 
son, and Mr. George T. McLaughlin of Sandwich, Massa- 
chusetts. Some fifty of the leading Irish nationalists in 
Dublin were also present. After the reading of the minutes , 
and of the resolution, the city marshal appeared at the bar 
bringing with him Mr. Collins who was received with loud 
cheers. Accompanied by the marshal he entered the en- 
closure and signed the roll. This done the Lord Mayor 
delivered an eloquent address in which he said that if the 
people of Dublin had any higher honor at their disposal or 
in their keeping, they would bestow it upon him for his 
timely and transcendent services in the cause of Irish liberty. 
Ireland, he said, was proud of the distinction achieved by 
her sons under the free skies of America. Their achieve- 
ments there offered the best proof of the capacity of the 
race in a fair field of competition and in a contest where 
opportunity counted as a factor. "You may take this com- 
pliment," said the Lord Mayor, "which we are proud to 
pay you, as a compliment to your personal worth, for the 
noble aid which you, with your own brains and your two 
strong arms, have given to this good cause for years in 
America. We know that you have been a power not only 
among the Irish-Americans, but among the Americans by 
whom you are so highly and so deservedly honored and 



A PAGE FROM THE ROLL OF FREEMEN OF THE 
CITY OF DUBLIN 



f /''^..■. rr'^^'i^ ^ ^'"' JiJ,/i»iy ^""ciioui/./w/ 



^ 



tU 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 63 

respected. This honor which we give to you to-day is 
given, as I said before, to you personally, but we wish to 
make it a mark of affection and love to our race in America." 

On rising to respond to the sentiments of the Lord Mayor 
Mr. Collins was cheered loudly and long. He disclaimed 
any great credit for the little he had been able to do for 
Ireland, but he was proud and glad to be honored in so 
signal a manner by the corporation of Dublin for what he 
had tried to do for the land of his birth. He wanted the 
Irish people to be self-reliant, but he wanted them, at the 
same time, to feel and to realize that there was a great popu- 
lation beyond the ocean that stood ready to aid them, to 
help them morally and financially. He said it was well 
for the Irish people to know this, and it was right that they 
should advertise it because it would make the other side 
reflect, and there is great value in that. "I must say, my 
Lord Mayor," he continued, "that I never had the slightest 
notion that I should be received in this island with such 
extraordinary attention. I was met on landing by the 
representatives of her Majesty and had my personal effects 
carefully examined and scrutinized, lest by any possibility 
the contents should bring me into disfavor with the nation- 
alists (laughter). In every walk of mine and ride of mine 
since I landed on these shores I have had an escort — a 
thing which is very seldom granted to the most distinguished 
men in the country from which I come. In addition to the 
freedom of the city of Dublin the press of the island have 
bestowed upon me a son twenty-six years old. The young 
man sits there and disowns his father (loud laughter). But 
these petty annoyances do not in the least thrust us from 
our republican base. We are citizens of the freest country 
that God has yet allowed man to possess, and we carry our 
freedom everywhere and smile upon petty annoyances, 
knowing that in God's good time they shall pass away 
forever." 

From Dublin to Cork, the county of his birth, Mr. Collins 
and his party travelled leisurely. When he reached the 
ancient seaport which goes by the name of ''Rebel Cork," 
because of the intense patriotism of its people, another 
surprise was in store for him. Here the corporation had 
also voted to place his name on the honored roll of honorary 
freemen. The ceremony was somewhat similar to that 



64 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

observed in Dublin. In the evening a banquet was held in 
his honor at the Victoria hotel. The mayor of the city 
presided, and at the tables were seated the most prominent 
men in all branches of activity in the city. An address was 
presented to Mr. Collins by the National League branches, 
and he replied in an eloquent speech in which he feelingly 
alluded to the conditions which drove him to a foreign land 
forty years ago. Those conditions had made him a friend 
of human liberty everywhere and a foe to all forms of op- 
pression. When the dinner was drawing to a close a large 
concourse of people headed by a brass band arrived in 
front of the hotel singing the Irish national hymn. To 
these singing thousands Mr. Collins was introduced, and he 
was forced to address them, although he had delivered three 
speeches already on that day. 

His progress through Ireland was a triumphal march 
except in Belfast and other northern centres, and here he 
was followed by detectives representing Dublin Castle and 
Scotland Yard. His baggage was examined very carefully 
and very cautiously lest the officials should perchance over- 
look dynamite in his trunks.^ The surveillance to which 
he was subjected was amusing at first, but it became vexa- 
tious in the end. On his return to America he wrote a com- 
munication to the State Department complaining of the 
annoyances to which he had been subjected, and asking 
that American Consuls be instructed to protect citizens of 
the United States against unfriendly or malicious treatment 
by agents of the British government. The Honorable 
Thomas F. Bayard, who was at that time secretary of state, 
acknowledged the letter and gave assurance to its author 

^ A correspondent of the Dublin Freeman's Journal, after a talk with 
a member of Mr. ColHns's party, wrote as follows to his paper: "Of all 
other places they least expected to be treated in a discourteous manner 
in the land of their fathers. They had travelled over England and 
Scotland, and had visited France. The government was aware of their 
movements which were open and above board, and it seemed therefore 
inexplicable that they should be molested and annoyed on their arrival 
in Ireland. Their portmanteaus were unceremoniously ransacked, and 
when the detectives had satisfied themselves that they contained no 
deadly dynamite or other explosive subject, they left the distinguished 
visitors to pack them as best they could. Particular attention was paid 
by one of the gentlemen in plain clothes to a bottle of bay rum which 
Mr. George T. McLaughlin had in his satchel." 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 65 

that instructions would be sent at once to the representatives 
of the department abroad to safeguard the personal liberty 
and comfort of American travellers in England, Ireland, and 
Scotland. 

Soon after Mr. Collins's retirement from the presidency 
of the Land League of America, and while the movement 
toward land reform and self-government was progressing 
steadily, a tragedy was enacted in Phoenix Park, Dublin, 
which undid or neutralized nearly all the good that had 
been done during three years of intelligent, spirited agita- 
tion at Westminster. Coercion had failed. The Irish 
people refused to be goaded into lawlessness. Peace and 
order reigned throughout the island; not the peace and 
order produced by governmental agencies, but rather those 
brought about by the great national organization. Parnell 
was the unquestioned ruler of the destinies of Ireland. His 
word was law where the Queen's writ did not and could 
not run. Gladstone had been forced to see and acknowl- 
edge the power of the League and his own impotency, with 
all the forces of an empire at his command, to cope with 
it. He withdrew Forster from Dublin and sent Lord Fred- 
erick Cavendish, brother of the marquis of Hartington, over 
to Ireland as chief secretary to the Lord Lieutenant. The 
incarnation of coercion was recalled as a discredited states- 
man, and a message of peace was sent by Mr. Gladstone to 
the Irish people through the new secretary who was the 
incarnation of conciliation and the friend and advocate of 
self-government. To the surprise and horror of the whole 
Irish race, outside a handful of irreconcilables. Lord Cav- 
endish and Under-Secretary Burke were assassinated while 
walking in the park, near the hour of sunset on Saturday, 
May 6, 1882. 

Mr. Collins speedily realized the deadly effect of the blow 
that had been struck at Ireland's cause by this crime. He 
knew instinctively that the masses of the English people 
who had been reluctantly accepting Gladstone's Irish policy 
would rise in revolt against the venerable Premier, and that 
the Home Rule cause, just then growing brighter and more 
popular, would receive a set-back from which it might not 
recover for a generation. On May 8 Mr. Collins had a con- 
ference with John Boyle O'Reilly and other prominent 
Irishmen in Boston, and it was agreed, on his motion, to 



66 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

offer a reward of $5000 for the apprehension of the murder- 
ers of the chief secretary and his companion. On Tuesday 
evening, May 9, a mass meeting was held in Faneuil Hall 
to ratify the action taken and to adopt resolutions con- 
demnatory of the murders. Mr. Collins presided over this 
meeting, and the writer of these memoirs acted as secre- 
tary. On the platform were many prominent clergymen 
and laymen who wished to testify by their presence to their 
detestation of the Phoenix Park assassinations. 

On taking the chair Mr. Collins said: "Brethren of the 
Irish race: We are assembled here in the interest of our 
motherland to express, with all the force and fervor that we 
command, our abhorrence of the blow struck at her cause. 
This is not merely the murdering of two men peacefully 
sauntering in a public park; it is the attempted assassina- 
tion of the cause of a great people. Just as the sun was 
beginning to shine for it, it was eclipsed by as foul an act as 
ever was chronicled in the annals of Ireland. We are here 
for ourselves and our kindred everywhere to repudiate, 
denounce, and execrate it. We join in the universal hue 
and cry of our race, instantly raised and constantly grow- 
ing, to hunt the miscreants down. We do it from no sense 
of guilt or the remotest responsibility. On the contrary we 
do it. from a sense of personal injury, to remove the foul 
stain and stigma from the name of the fair land we love. 
It was no friend, but an enemy that did it, and we are more 
concerned than all the world beside to have sure punish- 
ment follow the act. But while we express our deep grief 
and our fervent sympathy with the kindred of these mur- 
dered men in their affliction, we demand from the govern- 
ment and press of Great Britain and from the hands of 
mankind fair treatment and a just appreciation of our 
clear and honorable position as a people. It will not do to 
crucify a nation for the act of four individuals, known or 
unknown. It will not do for the governing classes of Eng- 
land who have for centuries waged a war of extirpation in 
Ireland, and assassinated our people by the wholesale, to 
make even a pretence to revive coercion and terrorism. 
What Ireland needs is justice, tranquillity, fair treatment, 
and an opportunity to manage her own affairs by her own 
chosen men. Poverty, ruin, woe, and blood mark Eng- 
land's rule there. Let statesmen approach the settlement 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 67 

of the Irish question, not in a transport of rage, but in the 
spirit of justice, when the passions of this awful blow shall 
have passed away." 

A loud burst of applause followed this manly, terse, and 
lucid statement of the case. This developed into a roar of 
approval which was continued for several minutes. The 
audience was in full sympathy with the sentiments expressed 
by the speaker, and when the resolutions were read they 
were adopted unanimously. These expressed the thanks 
of Boston's Irish sympathizers to Mr. Parnell and the other 
leaders of the party for their promptness in issuing a mani- 
festo denouncing the Phoenix Park murders; ratified and 
approved the offer of a reward of $5000 for the apprehension 
of the assassins, and repudiated and condemned the attempt 
made in certain quarters to implicate the Irish leaders in 
America in the foul crime. Wendell Phillips, who had been 
invited to speak at the meeting, sent his regrets and his 
sympathy with its object in the following letter : — 

Boston, May 9, 1882. 
Gentlemen : I am very sorry I cannot join you to-night in express- 
ing our profound regret for the disastrous eclipse which has come over 
Ireland's proudest hour, and our detestation and horror for the cruel, 
cowardly, and brutal murder. No words can adequately tell my sorrow 
for the injury our cause has suffered or my abhorrence of this hideous 
crime — a disgrace to civihzation. But it is by no means clear whether 
this black act comes from some maddened friend of Ireland or is the 
cunning and desperate device of her worst enemies. Let us wait for 
further evidence before we consent to believe that any Irishman has 
been stung even by the intolerable wrongs of the last twenty months to 
such an atrocious crime. Ireland's marvellous patience during the last 
twenty years entitles her to the benefit of such a doubt. Meanwhile 
let us work patiently and earnestly to discover the real state of the case. 
It will be ample time then to analyze the occurrence and lay the blame 
where it belongs. 

There was a disposition in some quarters to cavil at and 
criticise the stand taken by Mr. Collins on this vital and 
crucial question. But he paid no heed to it. He believed 
implicitly that he was in the right and that sufficed for him. 
When he felt he was in the right he cared not for criticism 
however severe or unjust. The effect of the manifesto and 
offer of a reward was most healthy in America. It had its 
effect abroad, too. It checked a stampede and made men 
pause and reflect who might otherwise have been misled 
by passion into assuming an unjust attitude. 



CHAPTER V 

Mr. Collins in Congress — Some of the Measures which he Advo- 
cated — His Dislike for Washington Life and Congressional 
Service — Anecdotes and Incidents. 

IN reapportioning the state in 1880 for congressional 
districts the Massachusetts legislature constructed one 
overwhelmingly Democratic district in Boston. All the 
strongly Democratic wards in the North and West ends, East 
Boston and South Boston, were thrown together for this pur- 
pose. Politicians who studied the congressional chart at once 
said that this particular district was carved out for P. A. Col- 
lins. But Mr. Collins had little taste for congressional life. 
Two years previously his name had been mentioned as a 
probable candidate in the old third district, but he refused 
even to give the matter his serious consideration. He de- 
clined to listen to any arguments in favor of his candidacy 
for that or any other office. When the Boston Herald, one of 
the leading independent papers of the state, took up the sub- 
ject and spoke in most complimentary terms about his fitness 
for the place, he wrote a letter declining publicly and posi- 
tively to permit the use of his name in that relation. He 
had been to Washington, and he had formed his own notions 
on the labors and functions of the average member of Con- 
gress. In this communication he expressed his strongest 
and most emphatic deprecation of the methods by which 
some congressmen are nominated and elected. The system 
of petty robbery by which an avowed candidate is plundered 
by bogus political clubs, associations, and individuals, from 
the moment he becomes a candidate until the last vote is 
cast, he described with surprising vividness and accuracy. 
In theory the representative to Congress is selected because 
of his ability and character by a constituency holding cer- 
tain fixed views as to the best way of carrying on the busi- 
ness of the government. The congressman thus chosen 
represents, when elected, the opinions of those who picked 

68 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



69 



him out and elected him. He is free to act and vote as his 
conscience dictates, providing he keeps within the political 
lines maintained and observed by his constituents. He has 
ample time to study public questions and to prepare himself 
for the serious work before him. In practice the con^^ress- 
man is an errand boy. He must secure places for the'' men 
who gave him their support, pensions for veteran soldiers and 
sailors, pardons for those who are in prison, and discharges for 
all young men who tire of their services after enlistment in 
the military and naval branches of the public service. When 
any of his constituents or their sisters or their cousins or 
their aunts visit the capital he must entertain them, take 
them to the theatre, show them over the Capitol and the 
White House and all the departments without murmur. 
And when he is a candidate for reelection, if the district 
be close, he must pay heavily for the privilege of going to 
Washington for another term to do the same kind of drudgery 
over again. 

All these drawbacks and many more Mr. Collins set forth 
in his letter of declination. He pointed out the utter im- 
possibility for a man situated thus to give any considerable 
time to congressional work. Under existing circumstances, 
he said, no poor man could afford to accept an election to 
Congress unless he intended to make politics a business, 
and then he would become a slave. The rich man can buy 
his seat and his leisure, or pay an ample sum for it to stifle 
protest and opposition, — he can employ an efficient sec- 
retary and a stenographer to do his clerical and routine work 
and run his errands. '' If we continue in our present course," 
he said, ''wealth will control all the avenues to honest politi- 
cal distinction. Either rich men will ultimately fill all the 
high places, or they will fill them with poor men who will be 
their tools. The remedy is in the hands of the poor men 
themselves. Every dollar they take for ' work ' or ' influence ' 
or votes in a political canvass, helps to enslave themselves 
and tends to make it more and more difficult and finally 
impossible for them to be represented by one of their own 
class. Instead of inveighing against ' capital ' in the abstract, 
let them drop 'capital' in the concrete when put into their 
hands as the price of their vote or influence. I plead for 
purity in elections, and for the enforcement of the laws against 
bribery and corruption. I plead for more freedom also 



70 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

for our representatives to attend to the legitimate business of 
legislation. I feel all the more free to make these running 
comments as I close by announcing that I am not a candi- 
date, and could not afford to represent my district in Con- 
gress even if honored with all the votes in it." 

Two years from that time he permitted his name to go 
before the voters of the newly made fourth district, and for- 
mally entered the lists as a candidate. As previously 
stated, the district was overwhelmingly, Democratic. A 
nomination was equivalent to an election. This fact led 
to a scramble for the nomination. Had Mr. Collins fore- 
seen a bitter contest, he would have kept out of it altogether. 
He had assurances of support from all parts of the district 
which would give him the prize without serious opposition. 
But two ambitious young men in different sections of the 
district shied their castors into the arena and declared their 
intention to dispute all other claims and pretensions with all 
their might and power. When the delegates were elected 
is was found that no candidate had a majority or even a 
plurality. On the assembling of the convention this condi- 
tion remained unchanged. Mr. Collins was in the lead of 
both his competitors, but if they could unite their forces, they 
would be able to defeat him. From eight o'clock in the even- 
ing until nearly two o'clock on the following morning the 
leaders of the rival camps strained every nerve to secure the 
prize for their favorite. Finally a little before two o'clock a 
break occurred in one ward delegation and Mr. Collins had 
a plurality. His nomination was made unanimous at once 
and the convention dissolved. In November he was elected 
by a majority of about five thousand. So widely was he 
known throughout the country that he received congratulatory 
letters and telegrams from friends in nearly every state in 
the Union and complimentary editorial notices from a large 
number of prominent and influential newspapers. 

During the next year he attended to his law practice and 
made some preparation for his work in Congress. He al- 
ways regarded the long lapse of time between the election 
of a House of Representatives and the beginning of its work 
as one of the serious defects of our political system. The 
elections take place in November and the members do not 
take their seats, unless they are called in extraordinary 
session, for thirteen months. For example, Mr. Collins 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 71 

was elected in November, 1882, and he did not begin his 
legislative duties until the first Monday in December, 1883. 
The faultiness of this arrangement must be patent to the 
understanding of any student of political science. In thir- 
teen months the issues upon which the members were elected 
may have practically disappeared, or may have been com- 
pletely overshadowed and superseded by others upon which 
the people have not had an opportunity to pass. The Eng- 
lish representative system is much better calculated to vitalize 
legislation because the element of direct popular authority 
can be infused into it. Within a few weeks after a general 
election Parliament is convened, and the responsible ministry 
proceed at once to frame bills embodying the dominant issues 
upon which the people divided. Thus the mandate of the 
electorate is quickly heeded and obeyed. Failure to comply 
with this unwritten law of procedure is sure to bring popular 
condemnation with ultimate ejection from office. 

When Mr. Collins went to Washington in December, 
1883, he looked over the list of candidates for the speaker- 
ship and selected S. S. Cox of New York for whom he voted 
as a protest, according to his own assertion on the subject, 
against the prevailing notion that a humorist can't be a 
statesman. He wanted it distinctly understood that wit 
and statesmanship were not incompatible, and that the New 
York congressman's candidacy was no joke. Although he 
was on the losing side in the speakership contest, he was no 
loser in the matter of committee assignments. He soon 
found out that he could have anything that a new member 
could reasonably expect. So he chose the committee on the 
judiciary. He might have had a seat in the ways and means 
committee, or in some other which would bring more glory 
and more opportunity. But he was a lawyer, and work 
on the judiciary committee meant work in his profession. 
And to work he went with a will. His chairman was Ran- 
dolph Tucker of Virginia, one of the clearest-headed men 
in the House. Mr. Tucker believed that his committee 
could do much to settle many disputed questions, and so he 
divided his forces into numerous sub-committees. To the 
sub-committee of which Mr. Collins was a member came the 
vexed question of a national bankruptcy law. Mr. Collins 
began at once to draft a bill and to study the whole subject 
thoroughly. He represented a district where the interest in 



72 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

a uniform system of bankruptcy or insolvency was very keen. 
He sought information at home and received some valuable 
data for the debate which was sure to arise as soon as a 
serious effort was made in the House to pass such a bill. 

Being an earnest man and working honestly as he was for 
what he regarded as the best interests of the country, he could 
not understand why there should be serious opposition to 
the consideration of a bill involving the business integrity 
of the nation. But there was serious opposition, and every 
time he tried to get leave to report, some technical objection 
was sure to arise which set him back. This kept on until 
late in the session. Perhaps no other new man could have 
gotten so far as he had. He was well liked by the Demo- 
cratic leaders. Men like Morrison, Carlisle, Randall, 
Crisp, and others who controlled the business of the House 
were ready and willing to favor him in any way possible, 
although they knew the bill could not pass in the House, 
and that if it did, it would be killed in the Senate. Being 
in constant correspondence with him, I knew just how much 
he was disgusted with the proceedings of the House, and 
how he chafed under the delays and restraints caused by the 
rules. He saw the political difficulties in the way, and he grew 
restive and pessimistic as to the future of the party. Noth- 
ing could be done to satisfy the country that the party was able 
or willing to face the problems which the leaders had mag- 
nified and exploited on the stump during the campaign of 
1882. And what of the future? On May 16, 1884, when 
the "long" session was drawing to a close, he wrote the fol- 
lowing letter to answer some questions which I had raised 
from time to time in my correspondence with him : — 

WAsmNGTON, D.C., May 16, 1884. 

Dear Curran: I have your letter written a few days ago, for 
which please accept my thanks. I have been watching home opera- 
tions with great interest, all the greater because I am lonesome at last 
and wish I was among the boys again. This is by long odds the most 
unsatisfactory place I ever was in, doubtless because this is probably as 
unsatisfactory a session as our party has ever had here. The minority 
of our party is just large enough to put us, with about seventy majority, 
in the humiliating position of not being able to answer the popular 
demand for a reduction of pubHc burdens. They leave us in a position 
where we cannot with any force make revenue reform a democratic 
issue next autumn. We cannot reasonably be expected ever to have 
a much larger majority, and it can be argued fairly that, if trusted 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 73 

again, we would not do better. The result may follow, and probably 
will, that either next autumn or soon after, the tarifif will rend both 
parties. The break of four Minnesota Republicans to our side, and 
the resolutions of the Minnesota Republican convention and several 
local conventions prove that it is causing a profound disturbance. In 
the next canvass I see that we shall have to meet again, and with ten- 
fold force, the appeal of the Irish to put down "British free trade." 
Nearly all the organs of opinion of "our people" are at it again, even 
the Pilot. I wonder if we are ever to become Americans, or if in our 
generation we will be able to convince the "old stock" that we are 
poHtically sane as a race. Don't put me down as a pessimist, but I am 
simply disgusted to see our men damning their opportunities. I dare 
say I shall get over it in a Httle while — say when I get a few whififs of 
the east wind at the Point. Some summer evening before long we will 
have a symposium, and I will tell you many things. 

My report on the resolution to amend the Constitution to affect 
Rhode Island I send to you. I think it will be worth while to print it 
in full. Next Monday I think my time will come to move a suspension 
of the rules, and fix a day for the consideration of the bankruptcy bill. 
If I fail, the bill cannot be considered by this Congress, unless, in- 
deed, widespread panic follows the New York failures, which seems 
improbable. 

I hope our people do not find fault because I keep out of debate 
and do not talk for talk's sake. The passion for talk amounts almost 
to insanity, seriously retards public business, and sickens sensible men. 
The whiskey-bonded extension bill was talked to death by its advocates, 
and Fitz-John Porter was almost buried by his friends. Many another 
measure has been almost death-deluged with gab this season. My ex- 
perience in legislation taught me never to say anything unnecessary, 
and especially seldom to say anything in favor of a measure until 
attacked, lest perhaps my reasons might imperil it. This is a safe rule 
always and everywhere. I propose to be governed by it. 

Butler is not seriously considered here as a presidential candidate. 
The straddle-the-fence revenue men and protectionists in the party 
mean Tilden, Payne, or Randall; the others mean an old and tried 
Democrat. What the outcome at Chicago will be as to candidates no 
one here ventures to predict confidently. But, then, this is not a good 
place to predict or see. 

My life ghdes on here busily but serenely. I have taken on a little 
flesh which was needed to cover angular bones, and I have learned a 
good deal. 

He had been watching for that same opportunity for sev- 
eral months, to move to suspend the rules and get the bank- 
ruptcy bill up for consideration. No wonder he was dis- 
gusted. And he had been promised a day by the leaders. 
On March 3 he had written hopefully about his prospects 
of success in getting consideration. He did not expect to 
be able to pass it. All he could hope for was a chance to 



74 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

make a speech and show to the House the merits of the meas- 
ure. I give his letter which is interesting as showing the effect 
of hope deferred upon an earnest congressman : — 

House of Representatives, Washington, D.C, 

March 3, 1884. 

My dear Curran : Thanks for a good long letter with breeze in 
it. But why did you tell anybody that I was booked for a speech on 
the bankruptcy bill? One of our friends came here, and he thought 
that I was to be delivered of it to-morrow. We have reported it from 
the sub-committee to the full committee, where it has stuck for the 
last fortnight. Only two subjects are across its path now, so it is 
probable that I can get consideration for it some time this week. Then 
the question is what will come of it. If I cannot get it assigned for 
a day, it will go over for weeks, and may not be reached this session. 
And then what is to become of my speech on that intensely poetical 
topic? But speech or no speech, I have gone into this question pretty 
fully and shall be ready to take care of it if I get the right, as now 
seems probable, when it comes up. But it is marvellous how indiffer- 
ent most people here are to any concrete thing. They are strong on 
politics, however. Senator Hoar, who has charge of bankruptcy in the 
Senate, has run away from it to investigate "outrages" (for fall con- 
sumption) in Mississippi, and so it goes. We shall not have good 
legislation here by any party until the House of Representatives is 
reduced to about 150, and they meet in another town. While the 
present numbers and system last, my constituents must not blame me 
for any votes I give or don't give, for I cannot tell in my exiled seat 
what is going on. 

But the bill finally, after many vicissitudes, got before the 
House. Mr. Collins made his speech, and it was an ex- 
cellent effort for which he was warmly congratulated. It 
was finally passed by the House and strangled in the Senate. 
But the way was paved for the enactment of a bankruptcy 
law which has given general satisfaction. He was, perhaps, 
the only man on the committee who could have pushed it 
as far as he did. When he was pleading for a chance to 
introduce it during the long and weary months William R. 
Morrison, the House leader, said, "Collins, I don't like your 
bill, but I like you, and I'll give you a day for debating it." 

He was very effective and very successful with other meas- 
ures which he brought from the workshop of the judiciary 
committee. He unravelled the tangle into which conflicting 
* bills had brought the Geneva award on the Alabama claims. 
He drafted a bill with much skill upon which all interests 
could be brought into agreement and thus ended that seem- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



75 



mgly interminable wrangle, and secured for the claimants 
the money to which they had been, for so long a time en- 
titled. It was his attitude in opposing the sending of the 
larger of the French spoliation claims to the Supreme Court 
which brought the whole question before Congress and pre- 
vented a long and vexatious delay in reaching a final settle- 
ment. Another question in which he took a deep interest 
was international copyright which had been a shuttlecock 
through ^ several decades of congressional history. He 
brought It into the open forum of serious debate and paved 
the way for its ultimate passage, much to the delight of honest 
publishers on both sides of the Atlantic. So successful had 
he been in preparing these various measures that in 1885 
he was unexpectedly assigned for duty on the committee 
having charge of the Pacific railroads. With his customary 
vigor and diligence he applied himself to the task of per- 
fecting the Union Pacific funding bill and disentangling the 
finances of that road from those of the Central Pacific. 
He was rewarded with success and was complimented on his 
knowledge of railroad finance. 

^ There was genuine sorrow in the Democratic leader- 
ship at Washington when Mr. Collins announced in 1885 ' 
that he would not be a candidate for reelection. He had 
become not only one of the most conspicuous figures in the 
House, but one of its most popular and useful members. 
He was universally liked, from the Speaker to the page. 
He had a cheerful word for everybody, and his word was 
brightened and illumined by some clever quip or jest. But 
good nature always tempered his sallies of wit, and no one 
felt hurt even if the laugh was at his expense. But the rules 
of the House vexed and irritated him. He took his con- 
gressional work seriously. He could not understand how 
business could be done when any single member was em- 
powered to prevent action or consideration by simply ob- 
jecting. His conception of the proper function of a delibera- 
tive body that was responsible for the making of fit and proper 
laws for a nation of sixty millions of people was that serious 
measures should be debated fully, and voted on. If the 
majority was in favor of their passage, they should be passed, 
and if the majority was opposed, they should be defeated, 
and that should be the end of the matter. But always some 
crank could be found, as Mr. Collins once said, to oppose the 



76 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

passage of the Ten Commandments or the Sermon on the 
Mount. He saw no prospect of being able to render ade- 
quate service to his constituents or to the country, and so 
he resolved to retire at the close of his second term. Be- 
sides he felt that his law practice might suffer seriously by 
his further continuance in Congress. He owed a duty to 
himself and his family, and he decided definitely to shake 
the dust of Washington from his shoes and return to his 
Boston home and to his work as a practising lawyer. The 
business men of Boston, whose interests Mr. Collins had so 
ably and watchfully guarded, and which he so intelligently 
interpreted and comprehended, did not view with satisfaction 
his proposed retirement. Some of them who were his close 
friends waited on him and urged him to continue his ser- 
vice in Congress. But he was able to convince them that 
to do so would be to make a great sacrifice. In commercial 
and banking circles a proposition was made to raise a fund 
large enough to insure his financial independence, but the 
promoters of this scheme soon found out that they were 
dealing with the wrong man. He would not tolerate any 
such proceeding ; he would not consider it even. 

But when the time came to elect his successor the delegate 
convention was hopelessly dead-locked and, at the last mo- 
ment, just within the limit of time allowed by statute for the 
completion of the official ballot, the three candidates with- 
drew from the contest in his favor and united in a request 
that he should accept the office for another term. They 
assured him that the temper of the delegates was such that 
any other satisfactory solution of the problem was impossible, 
and that there was danger of losing the representation from 
the district. As a matter of party and public duty he re- 
luctantly consented, to the great gratification of the com- 
mercial bodies in Boston and of his hosts of friends in Wash- 
ington. An incident occurred about this time which, from 
all points, was distinctively characteristic. A few of the 
leading merchants of the city — men who did not reside in 
his district — entered into an agreement to subscribe a sum 
of money sufficient to defray all the expenses of Mr. Collins's 
campaign. The money was collected, and a check repre- 
senting the amount was made out payable to his order. 
To Mr. Jerome Jones, who was personally acquainted with 
him, was delegated the duty of presenting the check and 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



77 



giving an explanation of the manner in which the fund was 
raised. When he fulfilled his mission, he was quietly but 
firmly informed that Mr. Collins could not use the money or 
take it. *' My campaign expenses," he said, "are all pro- 
vided for. I cannot accept this generous offer however 
highly I appreciate it and the spirit which animated the sub- 
scribers." He was urged by Mr. Jones to take the money 
and apply it to some good use during the canvass. "You 
may find toward the close," said he, "that there will be an 
urgent need for some ready money. Here it is." But 
Mr. Collins was inflexible. He again firmly declined to 
accept the proffered check. 

This was according to Mr. Collins's code of morals and 
ethics. He was extremely sensitive on such points as this. 
He would rather go into debt to pay his campaign contri- 
bution than take money from even so well meaning a man as 
Mr. Jerome Jones. During his second term in the House 
he advocated a certain measure simply because he believed 
in its principles. He took an active interest in the bill and 
aided materially in its passage. After it had been finally 
disposed of, Mr. Collins was waited upon one evening at his 
hotel by a gentleman who was personally and financially 
interested. The two men knew each other and were on 
excellent terms socially, while they might differ somewhat 
on political questions. As the visitor was about to leave, 
he turned to Mr. Collins and said: "Mr. Collins, you did 
me and those associated with me a great service by your warm 
and disinterested advocacy of that bill. I ask you to accept 
from me personally some slight token of my appreciation of 
your generous aid. No human being but you and me will 
or can ever know what transpires here." Saying this he took 
from his pocket-book a little package containing ten $1000 
bills and handed it to Mr. Collins. The latter looked at him 
sternly for a moment and then said : "I know you too well, 

Mr. , to believe for a moment that you intend to insult 

me, but you have done it, unintentionally no doubt. I have 
never accepted a dollar or a penny for any public service 
I ever performed and, God helping me, I never will. I can- 
not take your money, and as I want to think well of you, don't 
ever allude to this episode again." The fact that there was 
no possibility that the acceptance of such a gift could ever 
be known made no difference to Mr. Collins. He lived up 



78 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

to the standard which he had always set and maintained; 
he was true to himself. 

In the spring of 1888 the party leaders who had decided 
to renominate Mr. Cleveland thought it would be good poli- 

* tics to make Mr. Collins temporary or permanent chairman 
of the national convention. The rumblings of dissatisfaction 
because he had not been taken into the Cabinet had not 
ceased. They broke out sporadically much to the discom- 
fort of men who had other troubles to contend against and 

* who would like to eliminate ''Irish" disaffection. The 
pledges made to the people had not been redeemed ; and the 
failure to redeem was due to the opposition of some leading 
statesmen who desired to renominate Mr. Cleveland and 
reelect him. If Mr. Collins could be made chairman of 
the convention, the honor thus conferred upon him might 
compensate for whatever slight his friends believed had been 
put upon him by the omission of his name from the list of 
Cabinet counsellors. To this arrangement Mr. Cleveland 
readily consented. At the proper time, after enough public- 
ity had been given to the plan to permit of discussion in the 
press, the offer was made to Mr. Collins and he accepted. 
The convention was to be held in St. Louis early in June. 
About a month prior to that time he disappeared from Wash- 
ington and went "into the woods." Nobody knew just 
where he was except a few intimate friends. It was believed, 
and quite naturally, that he was preparing his speech. But 
the before-mentioned leaders ought to be consulted on the 
form and matter of that address. At least they thought so. 
But Mr. Collins thought otherwise. He was bound to write 
that speech upon strictly Democratic lines without "straddle " 
or compromise or evasion, and he was not going to submit 
it to men who had betrayed the Democracy, for review or 
revision. As the convention time drew near there was un- 
easiness in the inner circles at Washington, and those who 
felt this sensation most keenly communicated their apprehen- 
sions to the President. Then it was decided to make an 
effort to find him. This was done, but instead of taking the 
hint conveyed to him that he should go to Washington for 
consultation as to party policy and the order of procedure, 
he went to St. Louis. Here some of the advance guard had 
already arrived. Efforts were made to see the speech, but 
in vain. So a movement was started to give the chairman- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 79 

ship to somebody else. This threat produced no effect. 
The position was tentatively offered to Henry Watterson, but 
he replied bluntly that *' so long as Pat Collins was in the field, 
he would not enter it." Other leaders were sounded, and 
there was a prospect of a general row when the "Combine" 
gave up the fight and permitted the original program to 
go through without change. This they did not consent to 
do until they had learned through their active agents who 
interviewed arriving delegations that if any slight was to be 
put upon Mr. Collins, those who did it would be held to a 
strict accountability for any hurt the party might suffer. 
Mr. Collins maintained his position of independence, and 
the speech he delivered contained the pure and unadulterated 
essence of Democracy. It should be said that President 
Cleveland was under no apprehension as to the orthodoxy 
of the speech, and when he read it he expressed his satis- 
faction in unequivocal terms. 

Among his intimate associates and comrades in Congress 
Mr. Collins was exceedingly popular. He was always a 
most enjoyable companion, and he never joined a party 
that he did not enliven by his genial brightness, and enter- 
tain and edify by his keen analysis of subjects under discus- 
sion. He had a faculty of going directly to the core of any 
question up for debate and of stating tersely and lucidly the 
essential or vital point. This he did seemingly without effort 
or previous study. I recall an incident which illustrates 
this quality in his character. Soon after the inauguration 
of Mr. Cleveland in 1885 a few gentlemen were sitting in 
a parlor in the Riggs House, in Washington, discussing the 
Democratic situation as it was disclosed by the selection of a 
Cabinet and by some early appointments. The view taken 
of the outlook was decidedly gloomy, and after the sombre 
effect of this atmospheric condition had begun to color the 
mental processes, a discussion was started respecting the 
choice of a candidate for the nomination in 1888. They 
were all sensible men, but they failed to see the absurdity 
of their position. They were looking forward four years, 
and in their impatience refusing to give Mr. Cleveland a 
chance to redeem his pledges. Mr. Collins, who was of the 
party, had maintained a rigid silence during the discussion, 
and after several aspirants — supposed or real — for the 
high office of President had been set up and bowled down, 



8o LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

he said : "Time and opportunity will bring to the front some 
man, if a change be desired which I doubt, for the emer- 
gency. Four years ago on March 4 James A. Garfield took 
the oath of office as President of the United States at yonder 
Capitol. At that time he had never heard the name of Grover 
Cleveland mentioned. He died at Elberon, New Jersey, 
six months later without knowing that a man bearing the 
name of Grover Cleveland lived in the United States or in 
any other country. And yet four years from March 4, 1881, 
Grover Cleveland stood upon that same spot and took the 
oath of office as President of the United States." Nobody 
had thought of it in that light, and laughing at their own 
foolishness the gentlemen changed the subject. 

Numerous versions of the Phelps incident have been cir- 
culated from time to time with positive claims of authenticity 
by their narrators. Mr. Phelps, who had been a law professor 
or lecturer at Yale University, was a Vermont Democrat, 
and a man of high attainments. But he was not known to 
the people. When he was appointed minister to the Court 
** of St. James in 1885, people inquired who he was. But 
to England he went, and while there he managed to let it be 
known, how or when matters little, that he was not at all in 

* sympathy with the efforts and aspirations of the Irish par- 
liamentary party for self-government for Ireland. Fre- 

• quently stories of his dislike for everything Irish and his 
subserviency to everything English came to this country and 
were widely circulated by the newspapers sympathizing with 
Ireland's fight for autonomy. When Chief Justice Waite 
of the United States Supreme Court died in March, 1888, 
some one suggested to the President that Mr. Phelps would 
be just the man for the place. As the story goes Mr. Cleve- 
land thought favorably of the suggestion, and a hint was 
dropped by a mutual friend to the minister to England. 
Mr. Phelps obtained leave of absence and hurried to Wash- 
ington. Before leaving London he told some intimate 
friends of his — Englishmen — that he would probably 
be elevated to the Supreme bench before he returned. But 
the best-laid plans even of ministers plenipotentiary "gang 
aft a-gley." And so it happened with Mr. E. J. Phelps 
of Vermont and Yale. Mr. Collins visited the White House 
and represented to the President that if Phelps were appointed 
Chief Justice, there would be a revolt among the American 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 8i 

citizens of Irish birth and lineage because of his attitude 
toward the Irish party. As a result of that visit and one or 
two other conferences, Melville W. Fuller of Chicago was 
appointed Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court. 
Mr. Collins repeatedly said that he felt more gratified by 
the defeat of Phelps and the selection of Fuller than he had 
over any individual case which he had brought to Mr. 
Cleveland's attention, except, perhaps, the case of Sackville- 
West, the British minister, who dabbled in American politics 
and was caught, as Captain Devery would say, "with the 
goods on him." 

While Mr. Collins was serving his third term in Congress, 
he moved out of South Boston which was in his district and 
into Dorchester which was not. He bought a house on 
Mount Ida, a most delightful spot commanding a superb 
view over Boston Harbor and the city and surrounding towns. 
He had two objects in view in completing this purchase: 
to own a better house than he had in South Boston and to 
live in a district which then had a strong Republican majority. 
In his new home he would be free from the danger of election 
for a fourth term. 



CHAPTER VI 

The Campaign of 1884 — Cleveland and Collins Confer — The Great 
Albany Speech — The Butler Campaign and its Meaning — The 
Contests in Massachusetts. 

IN 1884 the Republican national convention which met at 
Minneapolis placed in nomination for the presidency the 
Hon, James G. Blaine of Maine. Mr. Blaine had vainly 
tried to secure his party's support for this great office on two 
previous occasions. In 1876 at the Cincinnati convention 
he was an avowed candidate, but he was defeated largely 
because of a scandal created by the publication of some let- 
ters which seemed to implicate him in questionable trans- 
actions while he held the high office of Speaker of the House 
of Representatives. In 1880 his name was presented at 
the Chicago convention, and although unsuccessful in their 
endeavors to nominate him, his followers were enabled to 
defeat the movement engineered by the "Stalwart" wing 
of the party to secure the prize for Ulysses S. Grant. 
About four weeks after the adjournment of that conven- 
tion which nominated James A. Garfield of Ohio for the 
presidency, Mr. Blaine told the writer that he had not 
expected to win at Chicago. His chief purpose in entering 
the lists was to defeat Grant. "I should much prefer," 
said Mr. Blaine, "to see the party defeated with Garfield 
or some other candidate to winning with Grant. The oppo- 
sition to a third term is too deep-seated in the American mind 
to permit of a departure from the example set by Washington 
and respected for a century by all political parties." To 
those who recall the election of Garfield and his tragic death 
six months after his inauguration, Mr. Blaine's analysis 
of the situation a month after the Chicago convention had 
been dissolved, cannot fail to be of interest. The writer 
met the Maine senator as he was returning from a sojourn 
at some Southern health resort, and went with him in his car 
from Boston to Portland, Maine. " Garfield will be beaten," 

82 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 83 

the senator said with much deliberation. "The Stalwarts 
will not vote for him, and Sherman will never forgive him 
for his apparent treachery in the convention. Garfield was 
spokesman for Sherman, and Garfield's friends went to 
Chicago with a deliberate purpose to place their own man 
in nomination. Whether he was a party to this scheme or 
not the friends of Sherman will hold him responsible." 
Yet Garfield was elected, and Mr. Blaine accepted the sec- 
retaryship of state in his Cabinet. 

The task of the Democracy in the summer of that year was 
to find a candidate sufficiently independent and sufficiently 
prominent to attract the disaffected Republicans who had 
publicly declared their opposition to Blaine's candidacy 
both before and after his nomination. Grover Cleveland, 
who was then governor of the state of New York and who 
previously had been mayor of Buffalo, was favored by the 
Republican malcontents and the younger elements of the 
Democracy. They said in effect to the Democratic leaders, 
''If you will nominate Cleveland, we will help elect him, and 
we have sufficient strength in the doubtful states to control 
the balance of power." Cleveland had appealed to the in- 
dependent voters of the nation, first by his sturdy opposition 
to "ring" rule in Buffalo, and secondly by his fearless attitude 
toward what has come to be known as "machine" politics 
while governor. He stood out boldly before the country 
as a man of strong personality, unbounded courage, and un- 
compromising honesty. But he encountered fierce oppo- 
sition within his own party. The rank-and-file Democrats, 
the men who had borne the heat and burden of the day 
through the dark periods of party disaster, turned instinc- 
tively to the old leaders whom they had followed in good 
report and evil report, and stubbornly refused to accept a 
candidate selected for them by former political opponents. 
They preferred Bayard of Delaware, Hendricks of Indiana, 
Thurman of Ohio, or in fact any of the old tried and true 
leaders to Mr. Cleveland. Mr. Collins, who was at that 
time a member of Congress, shared with the great body of 
Democratic voters an aversion to Cleveland and a disbelief 
in the vs^isdom of selecting him as the party's standard-bearer. 
Hedeclmed to go to the convention as a delegate-at-large from 
Massachusetts, first because he felt that some other worthy 
candidate might thus be antagonized, and secondly because 



84 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

the mugwump influence was powerfully exerted to create 
a sentiment favorable to the New York governor. The writer 
received a letter from him, of date March 3, 1884, when the 
choice of delegates-at-large was under discussion in Massa- 
chusetts. He wrote: **Plympton (General Butler's mana- 
ger) was here last week and spent two days in town. We 
talked about things political. He says Butler, Judge Abbott, 
and I can go to the convention without dissent or opposition, 
and that a fight will be made for the fourth place by several 
aspirants, that if I adhere to my resolution (as emphatically 
expressed to you) there will be a bad row. I stated the case 
to him just as I stated it to you and to Colonel Sweeney. Well, 
I don't want to go to that convention, for all the reasons I 
gave you. Neither do I want to stand as a stump in the road 
to upset our wagon. Henry Nelson tells me that Carlisle, 
Morrison, and other party leaders here want me to go. I'd 
rather be in the woods." 

On July I, 1884, just one month later, he wrote: "Have 
you any notion of going to Chicago ? I think I'll go out as a 
looker-on, perhaps as a slayer in case Cleveland be not quite 
dead. His nomination would play the mischief with our 
vote. For one Republican gained we would lose twenty 
Democrats." This statement expressed concisely the Wash- 
ington idea of prevailing political conditions at that time. 
Cleveland was a new factor ; he was not known to the "elder 
statesmen" of the party who feared a fusion that might ob- 
literate established political lines and result in disaster as did 
the Greeley campaign of 1872. In 1876 and 1880 it was 
demonstrated that the Democratic vote was at least half the to- 
tal vote of the nation, and the conservatives believed that it 
would be bad policy to invite combinations that might drive 
away more votes than they would attract. In this view Mr. 
Collins evidently concurred. But the progressive forces 
within the party, and those who had been close to Tilden 
in his splendid campaign eight years before, prevailed with 
the people, and Cleveland was nominated at Chicago after 
one of the fiercest struggles in the history of the Democracy. 
The defiance of his friends was well expressed by General 
Bragg of Wisconsin who declared in a set speech, "We love 
him for the enemies he has made." This challenge the 
enemies he had made were ready and willing to take up, 
and they did take it up with what soon appeared to be dis- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 85 

astrous results. Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana had been 
chosen as Cleveland's "running mate" from geographical 
as well as political considerations. He was an admirable 
representative of the Democracy of the Middle West ; he 
had been associated with Tilden in 1876, and he stood in the 
foremost rank of those who constituted the more matured 
leadership of the party. Mr. Blaine and his adroit lieuten- 
ants realized as soon as Mr. Cleveland had been nominated 
that a substantial portion of the thinking elements of the 
Republican party would go over to the Democracy. They 
took steps at once to offset this defection by appealing to 
Democrats who might be influenced by race pride or reli- 
gious prejudices. They appealed to the Irish and Catholic 
voters, and the appeal was as dishonest as it was insidious. 
It was dishonest because it was based upon a tissue of false- 
hood, and it was insidious because it travelled through the 
land on the wings of a mysterious, subtle, impalpable some- 
thing that was neither a rumor nor a whisper but a combina- 
tion of both. Mr. Cleveland was held up to the gaze of 
working-men as an agent of monopoly and as a malignant 
and implacable foe of organized labor. Before the eyes of 
the Catholic citizens he was pilloried as a religious bigot who 
vetoed every bill presented to him that was designed or drawn 
to confer a benefit upon the Catholic body. While these 
baseless charges might deter Catholic citizens from voting for 
Mr. Cleveland, they were not deemed sufficient to induce them 
to vote for Mr. Blaine. So the Blaine propagandists went 
a little farther. They pictured the Maine statesman as a 
stalwart foe of England, and they hinted at a ''vigorous 
foreign policy" which would make John Bull "shake in his 
shoes." Labor measures were sure to receive his sanction 
and support, and the Catholics of the United States were 
confidently told that all their interests would be conserved 
and promoted. So much was proclaimed in public state- 
ments and by personal assurances in quarters best adapted 
for their receipt and judicious dissemination. There were 
others who in secret listened "with credulity to the whispers 
of fancy" and "pursued with eagerness the phantoms of 
hope." Sedulously and furtively, with artful insinuation, 
the promoters of the Blaine campaign hinted at great moral 
and material gains to the Catholic Church in America from 
Blaine's election. Fragmentary bits of gossip were whis- 



86 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

pered in social and ecclesiastical circles about the Blaine 
family's religious proclivities. No definite statement was 
made ; no substantial pledge was given ; no obligation was 
assumed or incurred. But the atmosphere was heavily 
surcharged with vaporous particles and nebulous sugges- 
tions which, in many cases, proved to be ''confirmations 
strong as proofs of holy writ." Men began to regard in- 
sinuations as facts and to accept as proofs the tenuous claims 
and hints put forth deviously by adroit political marplots. 
The presence at this time in high political and social circles 
in New York of a distinguished foreign ecclesiastic with the 
rank of Monsignor and his strange interest in the campaign 
gave color to the vague suspicions then rampant of some sort 
of understanding between the Catholic hierarchy and the 
Republican party leaders. It was satisfactorily demon- 
strated later on that this gentleman had no authority what- 
ever in the premises, and that his activity was solely in his own 
behalf. But the effect of his interference was sensibly felt 
throughout the land. Stories were told with bated breath, 
in dark corners, of Mr. Blaine's reverence for the religion of 
his boyhood, of his fondly treasuring beads and scapulars 
belonging to his mother, and of other evidences of a cardiac 
tendency in the direction of an ultimate recantation of 
heretical opinions and professions. 

It was not strange that the Democratic campaign managers 
should feel deep concern over the outlook. Wholesale de- 
fections of Irish and Catholic voters meant the defeat of their 
candidate and the wreck of the party. Of what avail was 
it to secure the support of the mugwump whom Horace Porter 
described as "a person educated beyond his intellect," if 
his advent in camp was to be the signal for a general stam- 
pede of regular party retainers whose loyalty had hitherto 
remained unquestioned? Such a stampede had actually 
begun, and it was to devise means to check it that a confer- 
ence of the Democratic leaders was called in the middle of 
July. After a thorough canvass of the situation an invitation 
was extended to Mr. Collins to deliver an address at Albany 
on some date to be determined later in accord with his con- 
venience and engagements. A special envoy was despatched 
to Boston bearing the appeal of the conferees and having full 
power to make all preliminary arrangements. He outlined 
the situation lucidly and impressed upon Mr. Collins' s 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 87 

mind the magnitude of the crisis in the party situation and 
the necessity for prompt and effective action. Mr. Collins 
declined to accept the commission thus tendered to him unless 
Governor Cleveland could convince him of the falsity of the 
charges preferred. With his customary frankness he told 
his visitor that he had doubted the wisdom of nominating 
Mr. Cleveland in view of the allegations of Democratic 
opponents, and he could not consistently plead a cause unless 
he felt sure of his client's innocence. Two days later he 
received an invitation to dine at the Executive Mansion in 
Albany as the guest of the governor. When the cloth had 
been removed Mr, Cleveland gave a satisfactory answer to 
every question propounded by his guest, and on the evening 
of the second day thereafter Mr. Collins delivered his famous 
Albany speech. 

The selection of Mr. Collins to perform this service for the 
party was tantamount to a recognition of his preeminence 
as an effective orator and as a man held in the highest esteem 
by the millions of his race in America. It conferred a great 
honor and imposed a heavy responsibility. To be chosen 
to speak the word that was to elect a President of the United 
States was a distinction which any American orator or states- 
man might well cherish as a lofty tribute to his intellectual 
equipment. He met the responsibility with sublime courage, 
and fully justified the choice of Mr. Cleveland and his friends 
by a speech, prepared in a few hours, which struck a high 
note throughout the land and sounded a call to duty that was 
cheerily answered by hundreds of thousands of his race and 
kin. In this speech Mr. Collins was at his best. The mists 
of doubt and the cobwebs of slander and innuendo had been 
dissipated by the frank and manly statement of the candidate, 
and the orator had no apologies to make and no dubious 
questions to gloss over. His field was clear. His eloquence, 
like that of the ancient Grecian orators pictured by Milton 
as resistless and ''wielding at will that fierce democratic," 
thrilled the vast audience. Men arose in their places and 
shook the building with their cheers as point after point was 
scored with telling effect. With fine sarcasm he punctured 
the specious pleas and insidious professions of the Blaine 
managers, and ridiculed the tissue of whispered promises 
spread out ingeniously to catch the thoughtless and unwary. 
"This new-found love of Blaine and the New York Tribune 



88 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

* 
for the Irish," he said, "is like a limited railway ticket — 
good for this train and trip only. We prefer to take this 
trip with the party that never trailed the American flag in 
the dust at home or abroad; that made the declaration 'I 
am an American citizen' the key to open the prison door 
abroad to the court room or to liberty; that acquired the 
mighty Western domain ; that fostered our plantations and 
our industries till the land blossomed with prosperity and 
gladness ; the party that stood by the farmer and the work- 
ing-man against monopoly and greed ; the party that stood 
in all its days by the foreigner against every form of pro- 
scription and tyranny ; the party of the people, of local self- 
government, individual liberty, and pure and economical 
administration." This profession of Democratic faith, 
based upon fundamental principles, was accepted by his 
hearers as the political gospel of Jefferson was accepted by 
the early patriots, with unbounded enthusiasm. Its expo- 
sition in terse language and incisive style produced solid con- 
viction and gave the expositor a foremost place in the ranks 
of American orators and statesmen. 

But while the assignment to fire the first gun in the great 
political battle brought its meed of personal distinction and 
honor, it brought also criticism and even threats to its re- 
cipient. The elements that had plotted secretly to elect 
Blaine by subterranean devices took with very poor grace 
the manly defence set up by Mr. Collins for his opponent. 
They looked with manifest disfavor upon the man who 
pledged his solemn word and his sacred honor for the truth 
of his statements and the utter falsity of the accusations 
made against Mr. Cleveland. The effect of the speech, 
a million copies of which the national committee sent broad- 
cast over the land, was almost instantaneous. Those who 
had listened to whispered slanders against the Democratic 
candidate awoke to a realizing sense of the magnitude of 
the conspiracy against him and the slender foundation upon 
which it was constructed. There was a pause; the stam- 
pede was checked; minds that had been poisoned and 
swayed by insidious suggestions were again open to argu- 
ment ; principles and policies were brought forth for public 
discussion; Irish and Catholic citizens decided to vote 
according to conviction just as American citizens of other 
races and creeds voted ; the whispering galleries went out of 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 89 

business and the issues before the people were distinctively 
American. 

From every quarter of the nation at once came urgent calls 
for Mr. Collins's services on the platform. He was in uni- 
versal demand. In the doubtful states of Indiana, Ohio, 
New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut where his co-reli- 
gionists held the balance of power, local committees clam- 
ored loudly for him. In these and other states the poisonous 
seeds of slander had been planted by Blaine's advance agents, 
and devout Catholics and patriotic Irishmen were deluded 
by the plausible tales which had been circulated respecting 
the political prospects and religious possibilities that might 
be expected from the election of the Maine senator. About 
this time a strong pressure was brought to bear upon Mr. 
Collins to deter him from making other speeches during the 
campaign. Letters of friendly advice were sent to hini by 
persons who had known him in the old days of Fenianism. 
Men whom he did not know at all, but who professed the 
keenest and most unselfish solicitude for his prospects in 
public life, besought him to abstain from further activity. 
Then there were threatening letters. All sorts of dire political 
disasters were predicted for him because of his opposition 
to the great and only "friend of the Irish." One epistle 
out of all these may be selected to show how widespread was 
the Catholic prejudice against Mr. Cleveland and how eager 
some high ecclesiastics were for the election of his opponent. 
This was written by a Roman Catholic bishop about a week 
after the delivery of the Albany speech. It was not marked 
'•' personal," and so it may be quoted here. The good bishop 
wrote: "Some one has sent me a copy of the Albany Argus 
of July 30. In your speech you defend the action of Gov- 
ernor Cleveland in relation to the freedom of worship bill. 
It is true that he did not veto the bill because it never came 
before him. It is not true that he did not resort to sneaking 
and underhand measures to keep the bill from coming before 
him for his veto. Governor Cornell acted like a manly bigot ; 
Governor Cleveland like a cowardly one. Of the two I 
prefer the former. Worse, however, than either are the 
Catholic politicians who never lose a chance to betray the 
cause of Christ's poor and unfortunate in asylums, hospitals, 
refuges, or prisons whenever there is a possible danger to 
their mess of pottage. As you may not care to repeat your 



go LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Albany speech in defiance of the truth, you would do well to 
make further inquiry with regard to the governor's action 
in keeping the bill for Religious Freedom from coming 
before him. 

'*We who are contending for rights and principles are 
little concerned about sops to institutions. Nevertheless 
the Catholic Protectory had as much right to an appropria- 
tion as the proselyting Refuge on Randall's Island. You are 
a rising politician and would do well to remember that 
Catholics are caring less and less for political parties, while 
they are learning to keep good memories of past deeds and 
words that affect their rights and interests. Your speech 
is an excellent one to put by for future reference." 

Undeterred by threats and uninfluenced by appeals or 
remonstrances, Mr. Collins continued to advocate the elec- 
tion of Grover Cleveland until the last vote was cast on that 
memorable day in November, 1884, which marked the first 
formal step toward the restoration of the Democracy to 
power after twenty-five years of wandering in the wilderness 
of defeat and opposition. 

A disturbing element in the campaign was the aggressive 
and somewhat hostile attitude of General Benjamin F. 
Butler. The general who had for a number of years earned 
and held the sobriquet of the "Stormy Petrel" in Massa- 
chusetts politics had, early in the preliminaries of the na- 
tional campaign, conceived the idea that he might, by some 
possible combination of circumstances, secure the Demo- 
cratic nomination for the presidency. He had tried during 
several years of strenuous agitation to secure the nomina- 
tion of the Republican party as a candidate for governor 
of Massachusetts, but had failed. During the late seventies 
he shifted his political ground, as he had done in the early 
sixties, and established a qualified entente with the Democ- 
racy. No sooner had he done this than he set up a claim 
to be the party's candidate for governor. This was denied 
him by the leaders of the party, whereupon he proceeded 
to break and enter. Through strong appeals to prejudice, 
he secured a very large following among the rank and file 
of the Democratic voters. This, coupled with a portion of 
the disaffected element of the Republican party, gave him 
quite a strong backing for his pretensions to leadership, 
but he was never able to secure control of the organization. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 91 

Against him were pitted the very best elements of the party. 
Judge Abbott, Charles Levi Woodbury, Edward Avery, 
John Quincy Adams, Patrick A. Collins, Reuben Noble, 
George W. Gill, F. O. Prince, James H. Carleton, and other 
conservative leaders refused to deal with him upon any 
basis except his absolute surrender and unqualified alle- 
giance to the party and its principles. Finally, in 1^80, 
he allied himself formally with the party, and in i88tlhe 
was nominated and elected to the office of governor. In 
188*2 he was a candidate for reelection, and was defeated 
by George D. Robinson of Chicopee, who was at that time 
serving a term in Congress. 

General Butler's appeal had, during these years of agita- 
tion and transition, been generally to the great mass of the 
toilers. He professed to be their friend and their only 
friend, and he asked for their support in his aspirations as 
a presidential candidate, his request being based upon the 
theory that if he were elected President, he would revolu- 
tionize the relations between labor and capital. It is quite 
true that the Democratic leaders throughout the country 
viewed his avowed candidacy with some concern. He was 
known to be a man of great resources politically, and the 
following which he might gather around him as an inde- 
pendent candidate was the unknown quantity of the politi- 
cal situation in the spring of the year 1884. He had secured 
a firm grip on the organization of the party in the state, 
and he had tried to control the delegation from Massa- 
chusetts to the national convention in his own interest, 
but in this he failed. It is a matter of history that he made 
very little impression upon the delegates to the Chicago 
convention. He had previously secured the nomination 
from a socialistic labor organization, and had used this as 
a club to force the Democratic delegates to fall into line 
under his banner. This they declined to do. 

After the nomination of Mr. Cleveland, the responsible 
party leaders, who were confronted with the task of making 
a successful campaign, viewed with some alarm the decision 
of General Butler to remain in the field as an independent 
presidential candidate. The great masses of the discontented 
and the unemployed who always see an advantage to them- 
selves in political upheavals might possibly follow a man like 
Butler, and if enough of them did it, the chances for Mr. 



92 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Cleveland's election might be seriously imperilled. It was 
decided that some formal overture be made on behalf of the 
national Democratic party, so that General Butler might 
be induced to retire from the field. The person selected 
to approach the general was former Speaker Randall of 
Pennsylvania. Randall and Butler had served in Congress 
together, on opposite sides in politics, and they had come out 
of the service as very good personal friends. When Mr. 
Randall came to New England he found that Mr. Blaine's 
agents had already had an interview with General Butler, 
and had practically reached an understanding through 
which it was expected some benefit might accrue to the 
Blaine candidacy. A meeting had been held on board of a 
United States war-vessel in the harbor of Portsmouth, 
New Hampshire, at which William E. Chandler, then 
Secretary of the Navy, Collector Young of the port of Ports- 
mouth, Senator Rollins and General Butler, with one or 
two other local statesmen from New Hampshire, were 
present. Information respecting the conference was ob- 
tained by Congressman Leopold Morse of Massachusetts, 
who was a member of the committee on naval affairs, and 
who was in Portsmouth at the time on business connected 
with the department. He told Mr. Collins and myself at 
lunch one day the whole story. The information was com- 
municated to a representative of the New York Herald, 
who sent it by wire, and it was published widely throughout 
the country. It was stated later by others who were ac- 
quainted with the details of the conference that the Repub- 
lican national committee had bound itself to pay a large 
portion of the expenses of General Butler's campaign, pro- 
vided he would travel through the doubtful states of Con- 
necticut, New York, and New Jersey. A scheme of the cam- 
paign in Massachusetts to which the Republican committee 
was supposed to have contributed financial aid was the de- 
feat of Mr. Collins for reelection to Congress. A candidate 
was selected and placed in nomination with ample funds 
behind him to divide the Democratic vote, and either secure 
his own election or the election of a Republican, but in any 
event the purpose was to defeat Collins. How miserably 
all these schemes failed and how utterly the Butler move- 
ment came to wreck and ruin is a part of the political his- 
tory of the time. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 93 

It was industriously whispered among politicians who 
could be influenced by the possibility of favors to come that 
in case of Blaine's election General Butler would have much 
to say about the distribution of the political loaves and 
fishes in Massachusetts. There was no responsible backing 
for this claim or contention, but it was passed from camp 
to camp and it had its effect. 

In 1885, soon after the inauguration of Mr. Cleveland, 
I met Mr. Wayne MacVeagh on a train between Washington 
and Philadelphia. In the course of conversation I asked 
him the question whether as a matter of fact the Republican 
national committee had had any relations with General 
Butler during the campaign. He replied that the national 
Republican committee had agreed to pay for the hauling 
of General Butler's private car through New York, New 
Jersey, Massachusetts, and Connecticut, and that at the 
close of the campaign the committee was in debt to General 
Butler to the extent of $7000. Mr. MacVeagh, who is a 
son-in-law of the late Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, 
one of the stalwart leaders of the Republican party, was evi- 
dently in a position to know what he was saying, and he 
made the statement quoted without reservation and without 
qualification or injunction of secrecy. He also volunteered 
the information that had Mr. Blaine been elected. General 
Butler would have had no influence whatever in shaping 
his policy either in Washington or in Massachusetts. 

The unrelenting hostility which General Butler displayed 
toward Mr. Collins during the political campaign of 1884 
would appear to the uninitiated as utterly inexplicable. 
To those who knew the general nothing could seem more 
natural. In politics he had a very long memory, and he 
kept it actively at work. He rarely forgave those who had, 
at any time, opposed him. He might seem to forgive for 
the time being, but he never forgot. Mr. Collins had op- 
posed Butler's efforts in 1878 and 1879 to run away with 
the organization of the Democratic party, and in the cam- 
paigns of those years he made several speeches in which he 
denounced the attempt to seize the Ark of the Covenant of 
Democracy by force as an outrageous bit of political bur- 
glary. But in 1880 when General Butler decided formally 
to join the Democratic party, entering the state convention 
at Worcester as a delegate, Mr. Collins gave him the grasp 



94 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

of brotherly love and asked that all be forgotten that might 
tend to perpetuate estrangement. In that year the party 
was reunited, and Mr. Collins was chosen to preside over 
the state convention. In the course of his speech he said: 
''This is the closing act of the reunion of brethren who have 
honestly and manfully differed respecting means to a com- 
mon end ; and manfully and honestly we come together now 
deprecating past estrangement and disputes, but making 
no apology for individual preferences or action, to unite our 
forces anew for war upon the common enemy. If aught of 
word or deed remains to be forgiven, let us freely forgive, 
and let us now and henceforth forget all save our duty to 
Democracy and the Republic." Here was a straightforward, 
manly declaration of peace that should have appealed to all 
members of the hitherto warring factions. Again he asked 
the convention and its members to apply no other test to a 
man's sincerity of purpose except that of devotion to the 
principles of the Democratic party. "Let us not ask when 
a man joined, but is he a good Democrat now ? " Responding 
to the spirit of this candid declaration, General Butler 
delivered a formal address which had been carefully pre- 
pared, and in which he solemnly withdrew from the Repub- 
lican party, and made a confession of faith as a Democrat. 
He praised the record of Democratic statesmanship and 
condemned the alliance between the Republican party and 
concentrated capital. When one of his enthusiastic but 
injudicious followers proposed his name for governor, 
there were signs of a stampede, but the general went for- 
ward and put a stop to it. He was introduced again as a 
Democrat by Mr. Collins, and he announced his purpose 
to remain in the ranks for one, two, or three years, and to do 
work which might, at some time, justify the masses of the 
party in putting the standard into his hands. But not then. 
If he should accept a nomination, he would be accused of 
changing his political views for office. Mr. Collins favored 
his nomination in 1881 when he was nominated and elected, 
and he placed him in nomination in 1882 for reelection. 
In presenting him for this high honor, Mr. Collins used these 
words: "No candid man will say that Massachusetts is 
not better to-day because he has been its governor. We 
give the people a chance again to elect their tallest fellow- 
citizen, the chief executive. We offer to the soldiers and 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 95 

sailors who saved the Union a comrade, to the working-man 
a Hfelong friend, to the poor and oppressed a helper and 
a champion, to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts a 
governor of restless energy, matchless experience, and com- 
manding intellect." Notwithstanding this eulogy, and a half 
dozen or more speeches made during the campaign. General 
Butler was found two years later an implacable foe of 
Mr. Collins, doing everything in his power to prevent his 
return to Congress. Why? Simply because he was not 
a servile worshipper at the Butler shrine; because he had 
independence of character and a political conscience. 

It was Mr. Collins who saved Governor Butler from com- 
mitting the gravest and most stupendous political blunder 
that any sane man could possibly contemplate or consider. 
As the campaign drew near to a close that year, political 
excitement ran unusually high. Both sides were confident 
of success, but it was known in each camp that the greatest 
vigilance must be observed to prevent surprises and to avert 
fraud. Information reached the Butler headquarters of a 
purpose on the part of the Republican managers to import 
gangs of desperate political "heelers" from New York, Phila- 
delphia, and Chicago. These men were to be employed, 
so the information went, in " repeating," intimidating voters, 
and otherwise interfering with the freedom of the ballot. 
Their operations were to be confined chiefly to Boston. 
The governor professed to believe that the Board of Police 
Commissioners were hostile to him, and that they would 
wink at this invasion of the city by disorderly persons for 
political reasons. So he had come to the conclusion that 
the only way open to him to preserve his rights in Boston 
was to call out a regiment of militia to guard the ballot 
boxes, and to insure an orderly and honest election. Mr. 
Collins and Edward Avery of Braintree had previously 
accepted an invitation to join in a monster rally in Cam- 
bridge on the night immediately preceding the election. 
The governor made his closing speech of the campaign in 
the classic city, and a vast concourse of people turned out 
to cheer the speakers. At the close of the meeting, the gov- 
ernor sent a messenger to invite Mr. Collins and Mr. Avery 
to ride into town with him in his private carriage. They ac- 
cepted the invitation. During the drive to the Revere 
House, where the governor lived, he asked the opinion of his 



96 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

guests as to the propriety of calling out the militia. He had 
even selected the regiment to do this extraordinary duty. 
It was the Ninth, the distinctively Irish regiment. Mr. 
Collins promptly protested. He said that one of the shib- 
boleths of the Democratic party was, "No troops at the 
polls," and if a Democratic governor of Massachusetts 
employed soldiers to do patrol duty on election day, the fact 
would discredit the party for years to come, besides giving 
a powerful and dangerous weapon into the hands of the 
advocates of force bills. He begged the governor not to 
think for a monent of doing such a thing. Mr. Avery 
seconded Mr. Collins's vigorous protest, but the governor 
argued stoutly in justification of his position. He was, 
finally, persuaded of the unwisdom of such a proceeding, 
and the troops were not called out. In addition it might be 
stated here that perfect order reigned through the entire 
day. The imaginary thugs from Philadelphia, New York, 
and Chicago did not put in an appearance, and General 
Butler was defeated. 



CHAPTER VII 

The Relations between Collins and Cleveland — The Story about 
THE Cabinet in 1885 — How Endicott came to be Appointed — 
The Collectorship Fight — Other Incidents. 

THE relations between Mr. Collins and Mr. Cleveland 
have been made, at various times, the subject of dis- 
cussion by politicians. Mr. Cleveland's failure to in- 
vite Mr. Collins into his official family in 1885 has been set 
up as ample justification for a latent hostility on the latter's 
part which never existed. Mr. Collins entertained a high 
regard for Mr. Cleveland while he was in the White House 
and while he was out of it until the day of his death. The 
first time they met was in July, 1884, when Mr. Collins 
went to Albany at the invitation of Mr. Cleveland and his 
friends, to deliver the opening speech of the campaign. 
The manly, straightforward manner in which the candi- 
date laid bare his whole official record on that occasion, 
and gave a reason, and a satisfactory one, for every act 
performed by him as governor of the state, made a deep 
and lasting impression upon Mr. Collins. If there was any 
quality he admired more than another in a man, it was can- 
dor. He never believed in glossing over an act or deed per- 
formed after mature judgment. If it proved to be a mistake, 
the consequences, he held, should be accepted and borne 
cheerfully. He possessed that quality himself, and he ad- 
mired it in others. To use a vulgarism, Mr. Cleveland 
''made a hit" with him by telling the truth, and the whole 
truth. He went to the Executive Mansion at Albany, to 
cross-examine and to criticise ; he came away with a sense 
of elation over the fact that the Democracy had found a leader 
whose record was clear of blemish, and whose character as 
an official and a man was above reproach. 

They met again in November of the same year, after Mr. 
Cleveland had been elected. This meeting took place on 
Thanksgiving Day. The President-elect requested Mr. 

97 



98 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Collins to stop over at Albany on his way to Washington, 
whither he was going for the opening of the short session 
on the first Monday in December. He suggested Thanks- 
giving Day, as it would be a holiday, and he would have 
ample time at his disposal for a conference. The writer 
was invited by Mr. Collins to accompany him. We arrived 
in Albany in the early morning of the day appointed. At 
the Capitol we found the governor and his secretary, the 
late Colonel Daniel S. Lamont, in the executive offices. 
Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Collins spent two hours together, 
and talked over matters of legislation that might come up 
in the approaching session. They discussed party policy 
quite freely, and Mr. Cleveland gave a brief outline of the 
course he intended to pursue as Chief Executive of the nation. 
Summing up the case from his viewpoint, he said: "The 
Democratic party has been out of power for twenty-four 
years. It will be my endeavor so to carry on the government 
that the party will have at least twenty-four years of control. 
This can be accomplished by strict adherence to the prin- 
ciples of Democracy. The people demand honesty and 
economy in the administration of their affairs ; they demand 
a reform of the tariff on conservative lines, a reform of the 
civil service, and a general toning up of the national system. 
If we can achieve these reforms, we will win and retain the 
people's confidence, because we will deserve it." 

During the trip from Albany to New York that afternoon 
Mr. Collins expressed great satisfaction over the views and 
purposes of the President-elect. He spoke in the most 
enthusiastic terms of the brightness of the party prospects, 
and predicted a brilliant future for the man who had been 
chosen to fill the highest office in the gift of the people. He 
uttered no word which would give the slightest indication 
of a purpose or desire on his part to enter the Cabinet or to 
hold any office except that of congressman to which he had 
just been elected for the second time. The subject of a 
change in his status was not broached during the conference, 
and it was not alluded to in his later conversation with me, 
although he talked with the utmost frankness upon all the 
matters that had been discussed. He never sought an office 
in his life. Whatever honors came to him in his public 
career came to him without personal solicitation. Conse- 
quently he did not ask for a Cabinet position or for any 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 99 

other office or place. As chairman of the state committee 
of the Massachusetts Democracy, and as one of the most 
conspicuous Democratic congressmen from New England, 
he realized that he would be called upon to solicit favors 
or honors for others. But he had no thought of self. 
Moreover he knew enough about Cabinet life by observation 
to know that a man of limited financial resources could not 
afford to enter it. He was working industriously to retain 
a hold upon his law practice in Boston while discharging 
his duties as a member of Congress. He needed the income 
from the practice, and besides he had firmly resolved to quit 
public life at the close of his second congressional term, 
and to devote himself exclusively to the care of his family. 
He had reached the age of forty, and he had done more 
work of an exacting nature than most men of his generation 
had accomplished at sixty. To a man scrupulously honest 
and extremely sensitive respecting his good name as Mr. 
Collins was, the pecuniary rewards of political service are 
necessarily meagre. The tenure of public office is always 
of doubtful duration, because the public mind is fickle. 
Some men are able to make money and to save it, in politics. 
Some men enjoy even the uncertainties of political life and 
its strenuous and nerve-racking encounters. Mr, Collins 
could neither make money in, nor enjoy the "game," of 
politics. Of the honors incidental to prominence in the 
political arena, he had received his share. He was content. 
Henceforth he would devote his energies to the practice of 
his profession. A similar course was pursued by Franklin 
Pierce of New Hampshire, who resigned his seat in the 
United States Senate at the age of thirty-eight in order that 
he might devote himself to his professional duties and do- 
mestic obligations. Both men, however, were doomed to 
disappointment. Pierce was elected President of the United 
States in 1852, and Collins was forced by circumstances to 
a life of almost continuous public service, which ended only 
with his death. 

Without any agency of his own, in fact, in spite of his 
personal objection and protest, Mr. Collins was drawn into 
the political maelstrom, out of which was to come a repre- 
sentative of New England, in the first Democratic Cabinet 
since the days of Buchanan. By common consent this 
prize was allotted to Massachusetts, which had shown ex- 

L.Of C. 



loo LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

ceptional progress toward Democracy in the campaign in 
which Mr. Cleveland was elected. Massachusetts was the 
home of the mugwump, and the mugwump was very much 
in evidence in the canvass. It is true his activity was 
stimulated more by a distrust of Blaine than by any affection 
for Democratic principles. But it counted potently in the 
final result. The normal Republican majority in the state 
was reduced materially, and the normal Democratic vote 
was marked up in proportion. Tt is undoubtedly true that 
the independent voter in some of the doubtful states like 
New York and Indiana contributed substantially to the 
success of the Democratic electors, but this fact did not 
warrant the Massachusetts mugwump to claim the credit 
for Cleveland's election. That he did claim this credit 
may be gleaned from the fact that he undertook, from the 
outset, to steer the Cleveland administration, not only in the 
matter of national policy, but in the smaller matter of polit- 
ical patronage. As a civil service reformer he contended 
that his cherished principles would be violated if Mr. Cleve- 
land should remove Republican office-holders except in 
rare cases ; and in these cases he claimed the right to name 
the persons to be selected for the succession. In other 
words, he contended that no heed should be paid to the 
millions of Democrats, nearly five of them, who voted as 
Democrats for their party candidates, but that the chief 
executive office of the nation should be managed and con- 
ducted as he should be pleased to direct. This monstrous 
assumption of superior virtue, intelligence, and patriotism 
was properly resented by the Democratic leaders who, in 
the dark days of defeat and depression, had kept faithful 
vigil over the Ark of the Covenant of Democracy. Now that 
it was to be borne in triumph to the national temple, they 
declined to intrust its care and carriage to those who, only 
yesterday, had aimed to destroy it. 

Early in February, 1885, a strong delegation of repre- 
sentative Democrats went to New York formally to present 
to the President-elect Mr. Patrick A. Collins as the party's 
choice for a Cabinet position. This delegation was made up 
largely of men who, in Japan, would be known as the Elder 
Statesmen. There was a liberal sprinkling also of the younger 
and more aggressive elements of the party leadership. Mr. 
Collins was the official head of the Democratic organization 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS loi 

of the state, a place which he won by his ability, integrity, 
and party service, but which was thrust upon him while he 
was in Albany in July, preparing his great speech. The 
news of his selection was telegraphed to him at the Executive 
Mansion, and Mr. Cleveland urged him to accept. His 
sponsors represented to the President-elect at the conference 
that Mr. Collins was eminently fitted by character, training, 
mental and intellectual gifts, and wide experience in public 
affairs for a place at the Cabinet council table. He was a 
man of high legal attainments, the strictest probity, and the 
loftiest ideals. No abler exponent of the fundamental 
principles of Democracy could be found in New England 
than he. Moreover his brilliant services on the platform 
during the campaign entitled him to recognition as a party 
leader of national proportions. All these considerations 
were eloquently presented to Mr. Cleveland in the name of 
the Democratic party of Massachusetts. 

When Mr. Collins was made aware of the strength and 
earnestness of the movement designed to transfer him from 
the legislative to the executive branch of the national gov- 
ernment, he filed a vigorous protest. But when he dis- 
covered the existence of secret opposition to the plan and 
realized its source, his Celtic nature was aroused, and he 
consented reluctantly to enter the lists as a candidate. This 
impulse was strengthened by personal appeals made by 
friends in Boston who urged him to yield to their wishes. 
He reiterated his objection based upon financial considera- 
tions, and his purpose to abandon public life at the close 
of his second term in Congress. Then a movement was 
started to raise a fund that would be adequate to maintain 
the dignity of a Cabinet position, but that, of course, he would 
not tolerate under any circumstances. Gradually the pur- 
pose of the mugwumps was disclosed. They were willing 
to approve the selection of John Quincy Adams, Richard 
Olney, or some other scion of the Pilgrim stock, but were 
opposed definitely and unalterably to Collins. It would 
never do to pass by the representatives of the "old families" 
and take up an Irish immigrant, however able, however 
honest, or however distinguished as a man and a statesman. 
And so they flooded Mr. Cleveland's mail with letters of 
protest against the appointment of Mr. Collins, and some 
went so far as to assail his personal character. The per- 



I02 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

nicious activity of the new recruits stirred the old leaders 
to renewed exertions. Judge Abbott, George M. Stearns, 
James H. Carleton, Reuben Noble, George W. Gill, and other 
war-horses of the Massachusetts Democracy took up the 
Collins case, and earnestly labored to bring about his appoint- 
ment to a Cabinet place. It was a fight between the party 
and a little band of temporary converts who insisted on 
occupying the choicest seats in the Temple. The party was 
beaten. The mugwump propaganda prevailed. The 
mantle of office fell upon the shoulders of William C. Endi- 
cott of Salem, who accepted a nomination for governor in 
September with an express and emphatic stipulation that 
under no circumstances should he be obliged or expected 
to do anything toward promoting the principles of the party 
or his own election. By this renunciation of political 
interest, activity, and effort he qualified admirably for a 
place among the tutelary deities of the mugwump cult.^ 

It would be idle to contend that Mr. Collins was not cha- 
grined by the selection of Judge Endicott and by his own 
rejection. Toward the end of the controversy his mind 
had gotten into a receptive state. He had virtually agreed 
to accept the honor if it came to him; at least he pledged 
himself to do nothing to prevent its coming. Three weeks 
before the day of inauguration he wrote me a letter from 
which I take this extract: ''Boyle's visit was very satis- 
factory, but of course he cannot tell its absolute effect. 
Carlisle has returned, but has been laid up since his arrival 
with a severe cold. Only one man has seen him, and he 
tells me that Carlisle talked for hours and answered oceans 
of questions touching policy and personnel, but knows 
nothing. 'So what do the wisest know?' The general 

' The following telegram was received from Mr. Endicott in reply 
to a despatch from Governor Gaston who urged him to accept : — 

Glen House, New Hampshire, 

Sept. 3, 1884, 
P. A. Collins. 

Bay State House, Worcester, Mass. 
Mr. Gaston's telegram received. I will accept the nomination if 
made unanimously and without a contest, but upon the express condi- 
tion and understanding that I shall not be called upon to speak or do 
any campaign work whatever. On principle and for personal reasons 
I make this condition. 

(signed) W. C. Endicott. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 103 

feeling here among those best informed is that the closest 
man to Cleveland is Manton Marble." For several weeks 
I had been in correspondence with Mr. Collins and had 
kept him informed of the movements of his friends in Boston. 
The reference in the first line of the extract is to a trip to 
New York and Washington made by the late John Boyle 
O'Reilly in the interest of Mr. Collins's candidacy. Mr. 
O'Reilly, who had a keen and expansive imagination, felt 
that the Irish race would be highly honored by the selection 
of one of its most conspicuous representatives — a former 
Fenian, too, like himself — to sit in the Cabinet of an 
American President. A few days later he wrote again : 
"The thing begins to look serious. I never supposed so 
until now. The impression prevails here that Cleveland 
will do it as a matter of sound party policy. I have reason 
to believe that pressure has come from other sections besides 
Massachusetts. But whatever comes of it, I am profoundly 
grateful for the interest and friendship shown on all hands. 
I have written George Stearns my thanks for his good 
offices. Judge Abbott's action will have its effect, as he is 
in high favor among the older chieftains. Gaston never had 
a chance, and it is as well that his name should be dropped." 
The fact that two Washington correspondents of Boston 
papers had instructions to mail biographical sketches of 
him about this time led him to believe that the impressions 
and deductions outlined in the letter just quoted had some 
foundation in fact, and that the foundation had been sup- 
plied from Albany. On February 18 he wrote again: 
"Hewitt says that Cleveland has fixed upon all but Secre- 
tary of War and Secretary of the Navy ; that the former will 
go to the West and the latter to New England. He seems 
to know. It is evident that the mugwumps and their organ 
in Boston want none of us. I have not heard a word direct 
from Albany, and can't tell what is moving there any more 
than anybody else. I think that all has been done that can 
be done on our side." This was the last letter from him in 
which any allusion was made to the controversy over the 
work of Cabinet making. Within a short time after it was 
written, the country knew the whole story. 

The Forty-eighth Congress expired by limitation on 
March 4, 1885. On the same day Grover Cleveland took 
the oath of office as President of the United States. Mr. 



I04 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Collins remained in Washington for several days after the 
new administration had been installed, mainly to attend to 
some business intrusted to him by his constituents. He 
found himself at once confronted by a very serious political 
problem. Hundreds of aspiring Democrats from Massachu- 
setts and other New England states, tempted by the allure- 
ments of official station and the glamour of office-holding, • 
had filed their claims with him for early settlement. He 
saw plainly that no heed could be paid to these urgent re- 
quests for place. It was almost impossible even to get the 
petitions securely placed on the files of the Departments. 
Swarms of hopeful statesmen had gone to the capital to 
witness the inauguration ceremonies, and many of these 
lingered around the hotels hoping that, even thus early, 
their cases might be considered. With these and with a 
daily deluge of letters and petitions, Mr. Collins wrestled 
and struggled day and night. In time he fled from it all 
and sought refuge and surcease in his law offices in Boston. 
Not for months did the serious work of distributing the 
"loaves and fishes" begin. When it did begin, he forgot 
whatever of personal disappointment he might harbor, 
and addressed himself to the task confronting him by vir- 
tue of his position as official head of the party in Massa- 
chusetts. He went to Washington frequently to urge the 
appointment of Democrats to places vacant or about to be 
vacated, and he was received with cordiality by Mr. Cleve- 
land and his immediate entourage. 

In the summer and early autumn of 1885 the principal 
federal office in New England, the collectorship of the port 
of Boston, came up for discussion. The term of office of 
the collector was to expire in the winter, and it was the desire 
of the party that a representative Democrat should be ap- 
pointed. After several conferences Mr. Peter Butler of 
Quincy was selected as the choice of the responsible leaders 
of the organization. The mugwumps picked out Mr. 
Leverett Saltonstall of Newton, and pressed his claims with 
zeal and enterprise. Mr. Butler was a sterling Democrat 
of the old school and a respected citizen. The same, with 
justice, might well be said of Mr. Saltonstall, with this ex- 
ception, that his activity in political affairs was not as marked 
as was that of his rival. In 1877 he was selected by the 
national committee as one of the "visiting statesmen" to 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 105 

represent the Tilden and Hendricks electors in the contest 
in Florida. Both sides claimed the state, and the object of 
sending the joint mission was to secure a "square deal" for 
all parties before the returning boards, all of which were 
known to be corrupt. On the Republican delegation to 
Florida was Mr. William E. Chandler of New Hampshire, 
as nimble and resourceful a politician as could be found 
anywhere. Mr. Saltonstall was a high-minded gentleman 
who, being honest and upright himself, believed that others 
were of the same character and impulse. He was unfamiliar 
with the practices of crafty and designing politicians, and 
would not resort to the methods employed by less scrupulous, 
but more aggressive, partisans to compass their ends. It 
was therefore an unequal contest in Florida, resulting in the 
loss of the electoral vote to the Democratic party. As an 
observant newspaper man put it, "Chandler stole the state, 
while Saltonstall was having his fingers manicured." 

During the months of August and September Mr. Collins 
visited Washington frequently to discuss Massachusetts 
appointments, all, or nearly all, of which were held up to 
await the settlement of the collectorship. With all the 
powers of persuasion he possessed, he urged the appoint- 
ment of the party's choice, but he invariably received a 
negative reply. It soon became apparent that the mug- 
wump influence, backed by the personal solicitations of 
Secretary Endicott, was more potent than the combined 
strength of the Democratic leaders and the united Demo- 
cratic organization. But through it all the President mani- 
fested a most friendly disposition toward Mr. Collins. 

About the midde of October Mr. Collins paid a visit to the 
White House and disposed of a number of minor cases that 
had been pending. But the collectorship contest remained 
unsettled. Indeed it was not made the subject of more than 
a passing consideration. Mr. Collins had given his ulti- 
matum, and he could not even adopt the suggestions made 
by a number of active politicians who telegraphed him to 
cut the Gordion knot by proposing a third candidate as a 
compromise and as a safe way out of a very complex politi- 
cal situation. On October 29, Mr. Cleveland, feeling that 
the controversy could not go much farther without injury 
to the Democratic party in Massachusetts and without 
serious vexation to his own spirit, faced the problem bravely 



io6 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

and intimated in a letter to Mr. Collins that he was about to 
appoint Mr. Saltonstall. He wrote : — 

''I fully intended when I saw you last to dispose of the 
hard question relating to Massachusetts appointments, but I 
have been in as great uncertainty as ever. I want very much 
to please you, and yet all the time my judgment and inclina- 
tion lead me in a direction which thus far you have not 
approved. 

''I am drawn in the same direction at least as strongly as 
ever now ; and if I do the thing which you do not want done, 
you must put yourself in my place. You will never know 
how I have tugged at this thing. 

''I heard yesterday (I think) that you were quite ill. 
Your letter I take as an agreeable denial of the rumor." 

There was a tender solicitude in this frank statement which 
gave evidence of the high personal regard in which the Presi- 
dent held Mr. Collins; and through all the correspondence 
between these two strong, manly men no discordant note 
was discernible. Each stood for what he believed to be the 
right, and each respected the convictions of the other and 
the courage with which these convictions were upheld. 

On November 8 Mr. Collins, feeling that the cards were 
"stacked" against the candidate of the party, wrote a strong 
letter to the President in which he restated and reviewed 
the arguments which he had made in support of his con- 
tention, and intimated that the Democracy of Massachusetts 
would be rent asunder if he should yield to the clamorous 
minority and place Mr. Saltonstall in charge of the Boston 
collection district. He closed by saying that if this course 
were pursued, a sense of duty to the party of which he was 
the official head and a due consideration for his own self- 
respect would compel him to abstain in future from troubling 
the President with any advice or suggestion as to executive 
appointments in Massachusetts. On November 9 Mr. 
Collins received a despatch from the White House announc- 
ing the appointment of Mr. Saltonstall. When it arrived 
he believed that his letter had been in the President's pos- 
session before the final determination was reached. But 
he was mistaken. Late in the afternoon or early in the 
evening of the same day he received another message by 
telegraph which read as follows : — 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 107 

Executive Mansion, Washington, D.C, 

Nov. 9, 1885. 
Hon. Patrick A. Collins, 

South Boston, Mass. 

I did not receive your letter until after I had determined the mat- 
ter and sent my despatch to you. I earnestly hope you will not pur- 
sue the course you indicate, and that you can reconcile my act with the 
utmost friendliness toward you. 

(signed) Grover Cleveland. 

To this Mr. Collins replied by telegraph asking if the 
President's act were irrevocable and v^hether the matter 
could not be left open for further discussion. Mr. Cleve- 
land answered this message with the following telegram 
sent out about midnight : — 

Executive Mansion, Washington, D.C, 

Nov. 9, 1885. 
Hon. Patrick A. Collins, 

South Boston, Mass. 

The appointment has been announced, and a change is impossible. 
I hope you will bear in mind that this is the first and only difference 
in our views. (signed) Grover Cleveland. 

It was quite true, as Mr. Cleveland said, that this was the 
first serious difference between the two men. It was also 
the last. The utmost cordiality in their personal relations 
prevailed from that time until Mr. Collins died. During 
the last year of the first Cleveland administration Mr. 
Collins advocated a renomination. He was selected by 
the President and his confidential advisers to preside over 
the convention of 1888 at St. Louis, and he took an active 
part in the campaign which followed. During the four 
years of the Harrison regime Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Collins 
met frequently in New York, in Boston, and at Buzzards 
Bay to the mutual enjoyment of both. Their regard for 
each other grew stronger as time went on. There was no 
more earnest advocate of Mr. Cleveland's nomination in 
1892 and no more enthusiastic supporter in the convention 
and on the platform than Mr. Collins. And when the plum 
tree was shaken one of the ripest, richest, and juciest of 
the crop was given to him. It was the Consul-generalship 
at London. 



io8 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

When he returned to America after four years of service 
in this great office, he renewed his intimate personal rela- 
tions with the ex-President, and those relations were main- 
tained until the end. Mr. Cleveland repeatedly invited 
him to Gray Gables, his Buzzards Bay home, and the invi- 
tations were always accepted when it was possible to do 
so. The eloquent tribute which Mr. Cleveland paid to his 
virtues and his character when he heard of his death was 
no perfunctory expression. It came from his heart which 
was sorely afflicted by the loss of a true friend. 

In July, 1887, while Mr. Collins was in London, he was 
invited to visit DoUis-hill, the famous retreat of Mr. Glad- 
stone, to witness the presentation of a testimonial to the 
venerable Premier, which some enthusiastic Americans had 
designed to express their appreciation of his efforts in behalf 
of human liberty and a reform of the system of Irish gov- 
ernment. Mr. Joseph Pulitzer, the proprietor of the New 
York World, was deeply interested in the ceremony of pres- 
entation from the fact that his newspaper had been largely 
instrumental in organizing and perfecting the scheme. On 
the trip from London to Dollis-hill Mr. Collins had, as his 
travelling companion in a carriage, a staff correspondent of 
Mr. Pulitzer's journal. During the drive there was a 
general offhand discussion of various public questions 
then claiming attention from thoughtful men in England 
and America. The administration of Mr. Cleveland and 
the prospects of a second term for the President naturally 
came in for some consideration. What was Mr. Collins's 
surprise when he learned a few weeks later that a formal 
interview had been cabled to New York in which he was 
quoted as attacking Mr. Cleveland's policy and predicting 
his defeat should he try for a renomination. The corre- 
spondent represented him as saying: "I don't believe that 
he (Mr. Cleveland) can be nominated unless the situation 
changes in a very marked degree. He has done so much 
to get out of line with his party, and has made one political 
blunder after another, so that if he succeeds in being nomi- 
nated, it will be because the Democrats cannot find any one 
else." This and other statements purporting to represent 
his views and sentiments were quickly circulated through- 
out the country. Mr. Collins's position in the party leader- 
ship lent enormous weight to the utterances attributed to 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 109 

him. The close friends of the President were for a time 
panic-stricken. Another statement which the staff cor- 
respondent put into his mouth was that the chairman of 
the national committee, Mr. William H. Barnum of Con- 
necticut, had approached him with the tender of a place in 
the Cabinet, the secretaryship of war, which was soon to 
be vacated by Mr. Endicott of Salem, the father-in-law of 
Joseph Chamberlain of Manchester, England. His reply 
to Mr. Barnum's suggestion was, according to the World 
man, "Mr. Barnum, what led you to suppose that I had 
an appetite for second-hand food, or that I would wear 
second-hand clothes?" 

When Mr. Collins reached Cork on his way home, during 
the first week in August, Mr. E. A. Perry, a correspondent 
of the Boston Herald, approached him on the subject of 
the interview. After studying closely the brief abstract 
of the story which Mr. Pulitzer's staff correspondent had 
cabled to New York, he said: ''In the first place I was in 
Scotland at the date of the despatch, having been away 
from London since July 10. In the second place I had not 
been interviewed by any American correspondent since 
arriving in Europe. I have had private conversations with 
several American gentlemen, but they were certainly not the 
men to interview me for publication, and, moreover, in 
those conversations I expressed none of the sentiments 
attributed to me in the World^s despatch. Therefore, the 
cablegram, if it was a cablegram, could not have been a 
report of my observations on any of those occasions. The 
correspondent asserts that I stated that Mr. Barnum sounded 
me with reference to entering the Cabinet. Now that is 
nonsense on the face of it. I, as well as every newspaper 
reader, have seen reports of a change impending in the 
Cabinet, and in casual conversation with many persons 
reference was made to it. Those remarks I did not and do 
not now regard as an attempt to sound me regarding the 
matter. I trust I may not seem presumptuous when I say 
that my relations with the President are such that I do not 
believe if he decided to ask me to take a Cabinet office, or 
any other, he would do so through a third person. I neither 
used the language attributed to me in terms or in substance 
or any language which by the most perverted ingenuity 
could be construed to mean that. To the World corre- 



no LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

spondent I think I said privately, as I said to his chief, and 
as I know I said to all others, and as I now repeat, that if 
Mr. Cleveland desires a renomination, he can have it without 
opposition, either by ballot or by acclamation. It rests with 
him to say whether he shall be a candidate for the presidency 
again, and I remember well that in my talk at London with 
these people I said that I believed that if renominated, Mr. 
Cleveland would be reelected. My relations with Mr. 
Cleveland have been from the beginning most cordial and 
most pleasant. I believe him to be a very able chief magis- 
trate, and as honest a man as ever sat in the presidential 
chair. His solicitude, in my judgment, is to do exactly 
right, and if he does not in all respects come up to the 
expectations of the Democratic party, we must reflect that 
like the rest of us he is human. We are sixty millions of 
people, and no one of us can expect to have his own way 
twenty-four hours in the day for three hundred and sixty- 
five days of the year." 

After reviewing the incidents which transpired during 
the ceremony of presentation of the American testimonial 
to Mr. Gladstone, and reverting to the conversation which 
he had with the staff correspondent of the World, Mr. Collins 
said : "I have been accustomed for many years to deal with 
gentlemen of the press, and I know when I am interviewed 
and when I am not. I have never been afraid or ashamed 
to express any opinion I ever entertained publicly or pri- 
vately, but I decline to be responsible for opinions manu- 
factured for me. If I had entertained any such opinion 
of President Cleveland or his chances of a renomination 
and reelection, I should not have gone three thousand miles 
to express them for publication in a carriage along a country 
road. I generally proclaim my views, when I have any to 
express, at home where I am best known, and I do it in the 
most formal fashion. If it becomes a question of veracity 
between the correspondent who has expressly violated the 
confidence of private conversation between gentlemen and 
myself, I am content to let it rest there. All my utterances, 
both public and private, during the last two and a half years 
have been to the contrary effect. My views are unaltered, 
and I repudiate utterly and solemnly this alleged interview, 
whether purporting to be a formal interview or the relation 
of a private conversation." 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



111 



Before the publication of this interview a prominent 
member of Mr. Cleveland's Cabinet made a public state- 
ment in which he repudiated the World interview, which he 
branded as a malicious fabrication. He said among other 
things: ''I have known Mr. Collins for a number of years, 
and long before Mr. Cleveland's name was ever thought of 
in connection with the presidency. Sincerity and frank- 
ness are prominent traits in his character. Now here is a 
letter I recently received from him, which was written on 
the day he sailed for Europe in which he brands every state- 
ment in this article as a lie. He not only professes the 
greatest regard for the President, but the letter was written 
with the idea that Mr. Cleveland might see it. His faith in 
Mr. Cleveland's administration, in the wisdom of his acts, 
in the solid fame he has established through the Democratic 
party, his confidence in his renomination and reelection are 
all frankly and honestly written. His relations with the 
President have been of the most intimate nature. He has 
frequently been the President's guest at dinner in his home 
circle, and the mutual regard they have both shown each 
other is one of the traditions of the White House. He is 
now vilified by a story that he has been in London in com- 
pany with a blackguard who has undoubtedly perverted or 
reversed every expression Mr. Collins made use of in speak- 
ing of the administration of Mr. Cleveland. I have no 
patience to continue the conversation. Mr. Collins is a 
gentleman, and above all he is not the kind of man to com- 
mit himself in writing one day and open his mouth the next 
to the contrary expressions of good-will toward the President 
which have been repeated over and over again to those who 
are not likely to forget them. It is Mr. Collins's misfortune 
that he got into such bad company, assuming that he ever 
had a moment's conversation with the author of the story. 
You notice that the writer took the precaution not to write 
out the story until long after Mr. Collins left London. In 
any event it was evidently designed that it should not appear 
in New York in time to get back to Europe before Mr. Col- 
lins had left for home." 

What Mr. Collins thought of Mr. Cleveland was well and 
clearly expressed in a speech at Tremont Temple, Boston, 
on October 29, 1891. Governor William E. Russell was 
the candidate of the Democracy for reelection. He was 



112 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

then serving his first term as governor. Mr. Cleveland had 
been visiting Buzzards Bay to arrange for some repairs to 
his summer house, Gray Gables. It was known that he 
would tarry for a day or two in Boston on his return, and so 
the campaign managers induced him to make a speech in 
favor of the youthful governor whom he greatly admired. 
The bare announcement of Mr, Cleveland's presence was 
sufficient to draw to the hall and its vicinity a vast concourse 
of people, not more than one-tenth of whom could find even 
standing room in the building. It was an open secret then 
that he was picked to lead in the presidential battle of the 
following year, and this fact increased the popular interest 
in his actions and sayings. It is seldom that so much tense 
feeling and such wild enthusiasm are confined in one hall 
as were in Tremont Temple that night. Cleveland, Rus- 
sell, Collins, and other party leaders, state and national, 
were vociferously cheered as they took seats on the platform. 
Mr. Cleveland delivered the speech of the evening. It was, 
in a way, a eulogy of Massachusetts and a review of her 
contribution of brain and brave deeds to the founding and 
perpetuation of the Union. When Mr. Collins was intro- 
duced there was a latent feeling that if the rumors of cold- 
ness between the ex-President and himself had any founda- 
tion, some suggestion of it would come out in his speech. 
The people who knew him well knew that he would take 
no false position even for the sake of harmony. And so 
when the three ringing cheers that greeted his presence had 
died away among the rafters a deathly stillness prevailed. 
Mr. Collins settled all doubts in one short and crisp sen- 
tence. "This is not the first time I have followed Grover 
Cleveland," he said ; and then after a pause to accentuate 
his meaning and purpose, he continued, and "it may not be 
the last." This was the signal for another outburst of 
applause and cheers. The pent-up enthusiasm of the 
audience was let loose, and the hall rang with cheers for 
Cleveland and Collins. He next addressed himself to the 
settlement of another point. He declared his independence 
of faction, section, clique, or man. He was not a Cleveland 
man nor a Hill man nor a Russell man. "I am no man's 
man," he thundered, "I yield my homage to no human 
individual, but [turning to Mr. Cleveland] I honor manli- 
ness, principle, courage, and justice wherever I find it." 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 113 

Then, as the cheers which greeted this statement ended, he 
said: ''I salute the Democrat who led, for the first time in 
four and twenty years, the Democratic host to victory. I 
salute the Democrat who stood at the head of absolutely 
the best administration of the Federal government that this 
century has seen. 

" The nominal candidate for governor of Massachusetts on 
the Republican ticket, for some purposes of his own, would 
have it to be inferred that Mr. Cleveland and Mr. Collins 
ought not to be on speaking terms. This is a part of the 
Republican campaign of prejudice and falsification. He 
compliments me for the purpose of demeaning me, if that 
were in his power, by saying that I was of some service to 
the Democratic party, and that I was met with ingratitude. 
My friend, Mr. Cleveland, knows that I never, during his 
whole administration, preferred a personal request [Mr. 
Cleveland nodded approval], and I say to you, what Mr. 
Cleveland does not know, that there was no office in his 
gift during his four years of service as President of the United 
States that Patrick A. Collins could afford to accept. Mr. 
Cleveland was elected President of the United States, and I 
was elected a representative of the people, a prouder position 
than any in the gift of the President ; and as I had no personal 
favor to ask of Mr. Cleveland during his administration, so 
I shall have no personal favor to ask of any other adminis- 
tration. The Republican candidate for governor is like^ the 
rest of his party. He cannot understand how an American 
citizen can do a political duty without getting paid for it. 
With me Democracy is a principle, not a commodity to be 
sold." 



CHAPTER VIII 

As Consul-general at London — His Life and Labors at the Brit- 
ish Capital — Speeches which he made and Functions he At- 
tended — Some Side-lights from his own Pen — His Literary 
and Artistic Entourage. 

SOON after the election of Mr. Cleveland in 1892 the 
question was naturally discussed, what place in the 
new administration Mr. Collins would be invited to 
enter. There was a general feeling throughout the country, 
and especially in Democratic circles, that a mistake had 
been made in 1885 in not giving him a place at the Cabinet 
council. Of course those who knew the inside facts and 
knew Mr. Collins's personal feeling in the matter were aware 
that he entertained no ill-will or disappointment because of 
the omission, as he had said repeatedly that he could not 
have gone into the Cabinet. However, it was universally 
conceded that an opportunity was now offered to correct 
whatever errors were made in the first administration of Mr. 
Cleveland touching Mr. Collins's relation to the government. 
Toward the end of November, 1892, Mr. Collins was in 
New York on some private business. While there he dined 
with Mr. William C. Whitney, who was Secretary of the 
Navy in Mr. Cleveland's first Cabinet, and who was known 
to be very close to the President-elect. At that dinner 
Colonel Daniel S. Lamont, who had been Mr. Cleveland's 
secretary, was also present. The matter of disposing of the 
patronage, in the larger sense, was formally and quite freely 
discussed. Intimations were made to Mr. Collins that the 
President might invite him into his Cabinet. To this he 
very stoutly demurred. He did not relish the prospect of 
living in Washington four years ; and besides he entertained 
the same objections to a Cabinet place which he held eight 
years before, namely, that the work was not agreeable to his 
taste, and the remuneration was not sufficient. Later on 
other conferences were held, and it was suggested that he 

114 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS iis 

might be offered the ambassadorship to Mexico. It was 
even hinted that he might be sent as minister to Japan. 
But these and other suggestions were promptly negatived 
for financial and domestic reasons. Finally, he told some 
persons who were very close to Mr. Cleveland, and who 
had brought up again the subject of his relation to the new 
administration, that if the President-elect were considering 
him at all for any place there was only one he would con- 
sider, and that was the Consul-generalship at London. 
This statement was given out as an ultimatum. He could 
afford to be entirely independent in discussing the matter, 
as he was neither asking nor seeking recognition. Whatever 
overtures were made were made to him and not by him. 
Consequently, when he said London or nothing the discus- 
sion was effectually closed. 

It had been whispered about at this time that Mr. Cleve- 
land was in a position of some embarrassment owing to a 
rumor which gained wide circulation, that he had virtually 
promised the London Consul-generalship to his former law 
partner, the Hon. Wilson S. Bissell of Buffalo. Whether 
such a promise was made, or whether any understanding 
on the subject had been reached, only those directly 
interested could say. But Mr. Bissell's name was elimi- 
nated from consideration, and the place was practically 
set aside for Mr. Collins. At this juncture a slight compli- 
cation arose which the opposition press tried to amplify 
and exaggerate for the purpose of creating trouble in the 
party councils. The connection of Mr. Collins with the 
Fenian movement of 1865 and 1866 and his later promi- 
nence in the Land League of America were held up as pos- 
sible obstacles in the way of his being received in England 
as an official of the United States. Some of the papers 
went so far as to intimate that while the British government 
might not formally protest against the selection of such a 
man with such a record, in England people would regard 
his appointment to such an important post at the very 
capital of the nation as an unfriendly act. Mr. Cleveland 
was always extremely punctilious in observing and respect- 
ing the amenities of international relationship, and was 
always averse to doing anything or making any appoint- 
ment which could in any way be construed as an act of 
unfriendliness. Therefore, when these newspaper comments 



ii6 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

and representations were brought to his attention, he very 
properly caused private inquiries to be made respecting the 
basis of the stories and their probable effect upon public 
sentiment in England. 

In due time an intimation was conveyed to Mr. Collins 
that there might be some obstacle in the way of his reaching 
the goal of his ambition, for, in truth, it might be said that 
neither the high honors nor the substantial emoluments of 
the London Consul-generalship proved so alluring to his 
mind as the reflection that in his person an emigrant Irish 
boy might represent the great American nation under the 
very shadow of the parliamentary buildings, where all the 
oppressive and coercive acts under which Ireland groaned 
were framed and enacted. The idea of such a culmination 
of a career begun during the famine period of 1846- 1849 
strongly appealed to his fervid imagination. As soon as the 
difficulty was presented to him, he wrote a letter to one of the 
leading members of the Irish parliamentary party in London 
and asked him to sound the minister for foreign affairs on 
the subject. By good fortune Mr. Gladstone was in power, 
the Liberal party having won a decided victory in the gen- 
eral elections of 1892. Lord Rosebery was secretary of 
state for foreign affairs, and it was through his department 
that the exequaturs of all foreign ministers and consuls must 
necessarily pass. The Liberal party having committed 
itself to Home Rule for Ireland, and having condoned all the 
rebellious actions of the Irish leaders at home, was in a 
proper frame of mind to forget the "indiscretions" of 
American Fenians and members of the Land League, and 
so Lord Rosebery unofficially intimated to the gentleman 
who called upon him for the purpose of ascertaining the 
feeling of the ministry toward Mr. Collins, that there might 
be no apprehensions either of a refusal of the exequatur or 
of any feeling on the part of her Majesty's government on 
account of his appointment. When this assurance was con- 
veyed to Mr. Cleveland he decided the question, and assured 
Mr. Collins personally that he would be glad to have him 
accept this important post in the foreign service. 

As soon as the announcement was made officially the 
press of New England, and, in fact, the leading newspapers 
throughout the country, commented most favorably upon the 
selection. In Boston, where Mr. Collins had endeared him- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 117 

self to the great business interests during his six years of 
service in Congress, there was not a dissenting voice. The 
very strongest opposition papers congratulated him upon 
his success, and felicitated the country upon the prospect 
of its having in charge of the commercial relations between 
the two English-speaking nations a man of such wide ex- 
perience and splendid abilities. As a sample, this from the 
Boston Journal, the leading Republican paper of New 
England at that time, may be quoted : — 

"Hon. P. A. Collins is receiving some pleasant and deserved at- 
tention from his party friends on the eve of his departure for his new 
post in London. If all the appointments which Mr. Cleveland is 
making in discharge of his political debts were as good as this one, 
there would be no cause for complaint." 

The Boston Record, another exponent of Republican 
policies and politics, said : — 

"The selection of Mr. Collins as Consul-general at London is 
one that will be generally commended. His democracy is unquestioned, 
but his kindness and ability are recognized by all. It will be a pleas- 
ant experience for him, and as the ofl&ce is the most lucrative in our 
civil service, except the Presidency, his friends will all rejoice at his 
good fortune." 

A few days before the time set for his departure from 
Boston to take up his new duties, about one hundred of the 
most prominent men in the community gave him a dinner 
at one of the leading hotels, as a token of their respect for 
his high character and of their confidence in his success in 
his new field of activity. All the leading commercial 
organizations were represented. A number of the most 
prominent members of his own profession were there. 
The leading journalists of the city were also present. The 
governor of the Commonwealth presided and delivered a 
touching farewell address. The mayor of the city also 
spoke feelingly on the character of Mr. Collins as a public 
man and as a citizen, as did some of the leading merchants 
of the city. The Rev. Minot J. Savage, a distinguished 
Unitarian minister, contributed a poem for the occasion. 
It was generally conceded by the press and by the public 
that no citizen of Boston called by his country to a high 
service at home or abroad had been so signally honored 
as Mr. Collins was on this occasion, both in respect to the 



ii8 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

numbers present and the quality of the personnel of the 
gathering. 

Mr. Collins arrived in London late in April and proceeded 
to establish himself and his family in quarters suitable to 
his position and commensurate with his income. On 
April 21 the Queen signed his exequatur at Florence, where 
she was visiting, and soon afterward he took possession 
of the ofhce in St. Helen's Place. The duties which de- 
volved upon him as Consul-general of the United States 
embraced not only the conduct and management of his 
own office in London, but a supervision over all the consular 
offices and agencies throughout the United Kingdom. The 
work was not laborious, neither was it of an elevating 
nature. It was almost wholly administrative and minis- 
terial. Invoices of merchandise intended for shipment to 
the United States came to him for signature in triplicate. 
He was called upon to do a large amount of notarial work, 
and to administer oaths and acknowledge declarations and 
depositions made by Americans who were obliged to enter 
into contracts or other obligations in London. Then there 
was the endless procession of callers to be met and disposed 
of. Being a man very widely known in his own country, 
and being deservedly popular, the great bulk of the travel- 
ling American public who found their way to London felt 
obliged to pay their respects to the Consul-general. Many 
old friends whom he had met in Congress and in politics 
throughout the country were glad to drop in and have a 
chat, and to adjourn to a near-by hostelry for luncheon. 
The stranded sailor who found himself without funds and 
without a ship called to see if the Consul would not help 
him to get passage across the ocean. Then came the 
tourists, who felt it incumbent upon them to include all 
celebrities in their collection of notes and comment ; they 
wanted to look at him, to talk with him, and generally to 
solicit his autograph. Lastly came the impecunious Ameri- 
can abroad, whose remittance failed to arrive on time and 
who was threatened with eviction from his lodgings and with 
starvation on the street. To dispose of all these cases con- 
sumed a great deal of his time and not a little of his patience. 
It was a relief to him to get away from the office and repair 
to his residence in the suburbs, where he could enjoy a chat 
and a dinner with his family and his friends. 






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LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 119 

He kept up his usual home practice of walking three or 
four miles a day, and sometimes more, between his office 
and his residence. On Sundays one or two and sometimes 
more of a select and literary set with whom he was on terms 
of intimacy called at his house for a talk and a smoke. 
Among these were T. P. O'Connor, M.P., Ballard Smith, 
Bret Harte, Robert Barr, Jeremiah Curtin, the translator of 
Sienkiewicz's novels, when he was in London, Paul Blouet, 
and Harold Frederic. It was in association with men like 
these, and by continuous reading of the magazines and the 
latest books, that he managed to keep his intellectual 
mechanism free from the rust of inertia, which always 
threatened decay in the dingy quarters in the city. He 
made frequent trips to Brighton and Hastings and other 
seaside resorts to get away from the fogs and the mud 
of London streets. 

What he thought about the fogs and the filth of the great 
modern Babylon, as he liked to call it, was very well ex- 
pressed in one of the numerous letters which I received 
from him during his sojourn abroad. It was dated Novem- 
ber 13, 1895, and was as follows: — 

My dear Curran : I have your welcome letter of the 27th ult. Since 
then I notice that certain ambitions have cooled, and that Quincy has 
a clear .field. I sincerely hope he will win. Only treachery and men- 
dacity can beat him, and I trust our party has not enough of those 
commodities in stock to do it. It will be a great satisfaction for him 
to add to the honored procession of Quincy mayors of our old town — 
Faxon notwithstanding. 

I presume you have seen my wife and oldest daughter long before this. 
They took a sudden notion to desert me a few weeks ago, and I had to 
dip into the small pot of "British gold" to let them humor their whim. 
The rest of us are groping through the November fogs and "doing the 
best we know how." Until I came over this time, I never knew the 
value of the word "beastly" as apphed to weather. No other word 
can express the sensation when London is performing. The turning 
up of trouser legs also has some justification in this town, for the 
thing one walks in and that splashes above is not mud, good honest mud, 
that can be coaxed off when dry, but a dark bluish gray or grayish blue 
slime saturated with oil and soot and microbes and bacilli, that sticks 
and penetrates and stays. The devil himself with all his diabolical 
alchemy can't get it off or out. 

This is a "bully" place for walks, except for that. From where I 
live I can walk halfway to my office without obstruction, through broad 
suburban avenues and Regent Park, and turning the other way north 
I am in country roads and lanes and fields in ten or fifteen minutes. 



I20 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



Hampstead Heath, almost as nature made it, is less than a mile from 
me, so these long legs of mine find employment; but I don't belong here, 
and the time will soon come now when some good ship will take me 
where I do. I have been more than two and a half years here, and the 
rest of the time will soon slip by, so here goes. I don't think I will take 
a trip home until I go for good ; it would make me too lonesome. As 
there is no news nor any home rule now, I will chuck my pen and say 

good-day to you. 

Sincerely yours, 
(signed) Patrick A. Collins. 

In July, 1893, or when he was a little more than two 
months in his new office, Mr. Collins was invited by Mr. 
John Barry, M.P., to a dinner given in his honor at the 
National Liberal Club. The object was to bring together 
as many of the Irish parliamentary party as could be col- 
lected to meet the new Consul-general for the United States. 
There were other members of Parliament present besides the 
Irish members, and the affair was regarded in parliamentary 
cu-cles as a very happy event for all those who were privileged 
to attend. Bright and witty speeches were made by T. M. 
Healey, Justin McCarthy, T. D. Sullivan, and other leaders 
of the Irish parliamentary party, who took occasion to 
felicitate themselves upon having at the head of the American 
consular service in the United Kingdom a stanch personal 
friend who had done good service for the Irish cause in his 
time. Mr. Collins, in replying to a toast in his honor, took 
occasion to disabuse the minds of his hearers of any notion 
which they might entertain that his position in London 
would be in any way affected by his personal feelings regard- 
ing the Irish question. He told them frankly that first of 
all he was an American, that he represented the American 
government in an official capacity, and that he would be 
governed in all his acts by a proper consideration of the in- 
terests of the American people in their commercial relations 
with Great Britain. This declaration was not meant, he 
assured them, to convey the impression that he intended in 
any way to relax his affection for his native land or his 
longing for the day when she should take her place among 
the nations of the earth. While he was first of all an 
American, his second obligation would be to the land of his 
birth. 

While as Consul-general of the United States at London 
his social obligations were not such as devolved upon the 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 121 

Ambassador, yet Mr. Collins entertained quite liberally 
during his term of office. In April, 1894, he gave a dinner 
in honor of the late Hon. Augustin Daly, the American theat- 
rical manager who had just closed a very successful season 
at the Lyceum Theatre. This was a fitting climax to the 
theatrical triumph of Mr. Daly and his company at the 
English capital. His success, indeed, might be considered 
a national achievement. The English people at that time 
were so wedded to their own dramatic idols, and had brought 
the art of production to so high an eminence, that they 
looked with scorn upon American efforts in that direction. 
Mr. Daly, in order to win success, was obliged to overcome 
this deep-rooted prejudice, and he persevered until he 
forced the English people to recognize his ability and the 
excellence of his corps of artists. The dinner which Mr. 
Collins gave in his honor was, therefore, not only a recog- 
nition of his triumph in the British capital, but it was a com- 
pliment to the man personally. Among the guests who were 
invited to meet Mr. Daly were Ambassador Bayard ; Mr. 
Justin McCarthy, M.P. ; Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P. ; 
Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun; Paul Blouet 
(Max O'Rell) ; Colonel Lewis Morton Montgomery, special 
agent of the Treasury Department in London ; Harold Fred- 
eric, and other representatives of literary and artistic life in 
London. Mr. T. P. O'Connor, M.P., wrote as follows 
about the affair in his weekly paper, the London Sun: 
"Mr. Augustin Daly went through a novel experience on 
Saturday last. He attended the first dinner in his life at 
which he was the chief and honored guest. It is not that 
plenty of people have not been anxious many times to mani- 
fest their feeling of admiration and of gratitude, but to 
many other singularities as a manager Mr. Daly added the 
most singular of all, — he is painfully retiring and modest, 
and thus has always shrunk from even the testimony of pri- 
vate and warm friendship. But when General Collins, the 
Consul-general of the United States in London, an old-time 
friend, the best of fellows as well as the ablest of politicians, 
bade Augustin to a feast where only good Americans, with a 
small sprinkling of good Englishmen and good Irishmen to 
keep them in countenance, would be present, Augustin's 
reason and modesty had to give way, and so he hied him to 
the Metropole and to dinner on Saturday night." 



122 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

It was always Mr. Collins' s rule, when he had control of 
affairs, to limit the time which would be devoted to speeches 
during a banquet, and the limit was always short. He said 
a few words himself to compliment Mr. Daly on his success in 
London, and to assure him that his triumph was appreciated 
by all Americans in the capital, whether in official or private 
station. The Ambassador said a few words, and so did Mr. 
Justin McCarthy and Mr. Dana of the New York Sun. Mr. 
Daly, who was not much of a speechmaker, managed to say 
the right thing and to express his satisfaction over the fact 
that the ofiicial recognition of his efforts to give the Ameri- 
can stage a place in London was tendered by a man whom 
he honored as a public officer and valued highly as a personal 
friend. For the rest, the evening was spent in an agreeable 
manner, as might be expected when so many bright wits and 
distinguished men got together. 

In the same year Mr. Collins invited the American consuls 
stationed at the various ports and commercial centres in 
Great Britain and Ireland to a dinner which he gave at the 
Hotel Savoy on July 4, in celebration of the Independence of 
the United States. Quite a number of prominent Americans 
who happened to be in London at the time were invited, 
and in all sixty persons sat around the table. Patriotic 
speeches were made by the host himself, by the Ambassador, 
Mr. Bayard, and quite a number of the consuls. In closing 
his brief introductory speech, Mr. Collins addressed himself 
to the men engaged in the consular service, and said: "On 
this day of days all speak with a fulness of heart and with an 
overflowing love for American independence in one voice. 
On such a day as this, and on such an occasion, only one 
note can be struck." Then he gracefully introduced Am- 
bassador Bayard as "our" chief, who comes accredited to 
this country, stainless among the stainless politicians of the 
United States. The band played the "Star-spangled 
Banner," and Mr. Bayard's health was drunk standing, 
after which he was given three rousing cheers. 

Just before the expiration of Mr. Collins's term of office 
in 1897, the American consuls who were thus honored by 
him gave him a return dinner, which was a most elaborate 
affair, and presented him with a handsome album contain- 
ing their pictures and their autographs. This was one of 
the trophies which he gleefully brought back from London 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 123 

and treasured fondly as a reminder of the cordial relations 
which had existed between himself and his subordinates 
during the four years of his service. 

When the Hotel Cecil was opened in May, 1896, the 
management gave a dinner in honor of the event, which 
was attended by some of the most prominent people in 
London. Mr. Collins was invited as Consul-general of the 
United States, and during the speechmaking he was called 
upon to say a word respecting the growth of American ideas 
in London as illustrated by the newest hotel building at the 
British capital. In the absence of the Ambassador he was 
invited to respond to the toast to the President of the United 
States. He proceeded to say the thing which diplomacy 
always calls for in a foreign country ; that is, to say as little as 
possible and to say it with discretion. A remark which he 
made about the friendly feelings which Mr. Cleveland 
entertained for the English people was greeted with cynical 
laughter and some groans and some hisses. Just about that 
time Mr. Cleveland had served notice upon England that 
she must not encroach upon the territory of Venezuela until 
a just and proper delimitation could be made to establish 
an actual boundary line between the British possessions and 
the Venezuelan territory. The message which Mr. Cleve- 
land had sent to Congress was very firm in tone, and in it he 
asked for authority to expend a certain amount of money 
in making a survey of the disputed zone with a view to 
ascertaining whether England was unjustly and unfairly 
encroaching upon her neighbor's premises. It was this act 
which caused the boorish response to Mr. Collins' s harmless 
statement. After the hostile demonstration had ceased, Mr. 
Collins, in a ringing voice which could be heard throughout 
the hall, rebuked the interrupters in these words : ''There is no 
antagonism between the United States and any well-meaning 
nation on earth. If the rest of the world understood the 
United States as well as the United States understands the 
rest of the world, there would never be any danger to peace 
between my country and other nations." A burst of genu- 
ine applause, whose spontaneity testified to the sincerity of 
those who joined in it, silenced the little group of disturbers 
and gave Mr. Collins a free field for the rest of his speech. 
This little incident with the extract from the speech just 
quoted was cabled to the United States on the same night, 



124 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

and evoked an unbroken chorus of commendation from the 
press and public men everywhere. 

The visit of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company 
of Boston to London in the summer of 1896 afforded Mr. 
Collins an opportunity of assisting materially in entertaining 
the first military company that ever came from the United 
States to England in the history of the two countries. And 
they were all fellow-townsmen of his. During their stay at the 
British capital Mr. Collins devoted much of his time to their 
entertainment and enjoyment. He joined them in their ex- 
cursions, attended all the functions to which they had been in- 
vited, and by his courtesy and attention won the respect and 
gratitude of the visiting company. Mrs. Collins entertained 
the ladies of the party at luncheon, and in other ways looked 
after their comfort while their husbands were on duty. Mr. 
Collins also made friends with the Honourable Artillery Com- 
pany of London who were entertaining the Bostonians, and 
particularly with the Earl of Denbigh, who commanded the 
corps. It was his good fortune, and perhaps that of the 
English company, that he was mayor of the city of Boston 
when they made the return visit in 1903. On that occasion 
he attended the dinner given by the Boston company to its 
English guests, and also the return dinner given by the 
Englishmen on the eve of their departure for home, and he 
made a short speech at each of these functions. He ex- 
tended exceptional courtesies to the Earl and Countess of 
Denbigh during their brief stay. 

One of the amusing incidents in his official life in London 
was the effort made by Mr. George Smalley, then the cor- 
respondent of the Neiv York Tribune in London, and later 
the correspondent of the London Times in New York, to 
involve him in some indiscretion which could be turned to his 
disadvantage. Mr. Smalley was particularly grieved be- 
cause Mr. Collins did not pose in London as a Fenian. He 
resented the fact that the Consul-general was not only a 
scholar but a gentleman. With a malicious sneer he called 
attention in his correspondence to the fact that Mr. Collins 
had made his first appearance at a public dinner in London 
on the birthday of the Queen, and did not protest against 
the toast to her Majesty, but on the contrary actually 
"joined in the act of homage." His disappointment in this 
respect was prolonged, for on every public occasion where 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 125 

Mr. Collins appeared, whether of a social or political nature, 
he carried off the honors by his affability, his eloquence, 
his courtesy, and his tact. Not one bit of the mud which Mr. 
Smalley threw at him stuck. 

In the Savage Club, which is made up largely of literary 
men, artists, prominent actors, and some politicians of the 
higher grade, Mr. Collins was a prime favorite. The Sav- 
age Club has real savages and a real club, besides giving 
some of the most enjoyable functions in London. Mr. 
Collins frequently presided over this gathering of wits and 
geniuses with great success, and with the applause of all the 
members. 

From a large number of letters which he wrote on various 
subjects, — political, official, social, and domestic, — a few are 
selected for publication here. The only purpose to be served 
by their publication is to show the scope of his observation 
and the range of his vision with respect to public and per- 
sonal affairs. He wrote, of course, without any idea that the 
letters would ever be published, and he wrote freely. Gen- 
erally, he merely touched the edge of a subject, or alluded to 
it in passing. His letters were always gossipy and breezy. 
On July 21, 1893, his first year of service, he wrote as follows 
from Switzerland, where he was resting after a protracted 
trip on the Continent : — 

Hotel Engadiner-Kulm, 

St. Maurice, Switzerland, 

July 21, 1893. 

My dear Curran: This is my letter-writing afternoon, as I had 
a four hours' tramp this forenoon (and not much of it level) and sitting 
down is good. I have taken or am taking my thirty days. I came by 
Ostend, Brussels, Cologne (thirteen hours in the Rhine boat), Mayence, 
Carlsbad (stay of seven days), Munich by the Lake of Constance to 
Coire, and thence by diligence, fifty-nine miles in thirteen hours and 
nineteen minutes to this place. Delightfully hard to get to, but it is 
all here. This village is over six thousand feet above the sea level. 
Across the little lake that the Inn pours through in its hurry to the Tyrol 
is a very friendly mountain with a very broad white tie of snow. I can 
almost "set it to rights" for him. When I see him (the mountain) 
I feel feminine. 

Will be back in London presently via the thirteen hours with the dili- 
gence ride, and Zurich, Basle, and Calais. Do you wonder why I 
don't say Paris ? It would be a day longer, because I would have to 
stay. For my good, a day here is better — selfish. I have been seven- 
teen days away and have not seen a man whom I ever saw before, except 
good old Jacob Morse, whom I met with his wife in Carlsbad. 



126 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

You're good to tell me I am remembered. " 'Tis sweet to be," etc., 
in view of what you said in the letter about my deportment in Babylon. 
Morgan sent me a marked copy of your letter to the Times, so you are 
bound to keep me missed. 

Consulate-general of the United States, 
London, September 6, 1893. 

Dear Curran: This is a good sketch of the house of landlords 
wrestling with what may be their fate. I cannot send you any news — 
there isn't any, save what you see in the papers. I saw the last of the 
Home Rule Bill in the Commons at 1.05 a.m. Saturday. It was a night 
to be remembered. 

Society has deserted London, and business also. The streets are 
torn up for repairs, and the clubs and hotels are getting cleaned up. 

The cholera has taken lodgings at Grimsby and Hull, practically 
the one place, but we are in hopes it won't take the notion of making 
visits. 

It is worse on the Continent than the papers report. Not a word 
in the press about Vienna, but Max Judd [the American consul] reported 
to me five cases there on the 30th ult. 

Arthur O'Connor and Florance O'DriscoU visit America soon. 
O'Driscoll is one of the World's Fair commissioners, and a rare Home 
Rule M.P. You will see them in Boston. It is not publicly known 
that they are going yet, so don't tell it until it is announced publicly. 

Inside the party things are a good deal torn up, but such things are 
not unusual. I wish I also could go across, but I have had my vacation 
and I must not be piggish. 

All well here, but business is fearfully bad ; can feel it in the office. 
Twenty-seven per cent fewer invoices in August, 1893, than in August, 
1892, so the republic and its Consul-general both suffer. We can get 
on, however, by close economy, and nurse hope by waiting for a rise. 
Tell me all the local news — when there is any. 

Consulate-general of the United States, 
London, May 14, 1894. 

Dear Curran: It's Whit-Monday, a bank holiday, so no Briton 
works. Therefore, I make the best of it and use it as a farmer does 
his "wet day," while 'Arry and 'Arriet are making another kind of a 
wet day of it in "Lunnon" and out of it. I find an unfamiliar bad pen 
to use and must make short work of it. I don't write much in the flat, 
and won't write in it at all after to-day, for we move soon to 'appy 'Amp- 
stead — next week perhaps. 

It was just like you to make so much of the Httle dinner to Daly. 
I send you the bill of fare from which you will see that "the appropria- 
tion was sufficient." I thought it the right thing to do ; it was an uphill 
fight in Babylon and Daly won. 

There is really little to write about here, everything is singularly 
dull — business and what is called "society" especially. It is probably 
London's dullest season for a generation. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 127 

On September 17, 1894, he wrote: — 

No well-organized man writes to friend or foe in vacation time, nor 
do I. My leave of absence, for I am now "a man subject to authority," 
is ended. And after running the "pics" through Paris and Versailles 
for the first time and more than a week, and having the hose played 
upon me for more than eighteen days at Bath, I am back in Babylon, 
refreshed to resume business at the old stand to-morrow. I think I 
earned a vacation. For nearly thirteen months I had not been out 
of London but four business days, therefore, I saw no Vigilant race 
or any other sport. I could not possibly get up to Edinburgh even to say 
the empty word to poor Mrs. Underwood, for I was held like a thing in 
a vise in London. Poor Frank, I saw him last on July 5th, as he was 
leaving after my consular dinner. Little did I think then that I should 
see his face no more. Though it was his last trip, poor fellow, he 
seemed greatly to enjoy it. 

I just missed Frank Harris, and am very sorry for it. He came to 
the office the other day after I left ; I should have dearly loved a sym- 
posium with him. 

William L. Wilson is or was in town within a day or two. I will 
try and hunt him up and commune with him to-morrow. 

I suppose we shall be licked like ten pins everywhere next fall. 
Our party doesn't deserve it, — on the tariff, — but the sins of a few 
senators will descend upon the whole of us. Poor performance of party 
promise as the tariff act is it is a distinct advance, and for New England 
a great one. 

I think notwithstanding the head winds the Democratic ship will 
be able to reach port in 1896. The popular punishment for all our 
sins of omission ought to be enough this year, and as business can't get 
worse it must get better soon. In two years we ought to pull out indus- 
trially and poHtically. 

I write on this paper because it saves postage money. It isn't 
pretty, but it is economical. 

All at home are seemingly well; they don't grumble. I suppose 
Mt. Ida looks lonesome — so am I, but I am eating into my exile time 
rapidly, when I will be "wid ye" again. 

When his children were young Mr. ColKns was wont to 
call them pickaninnies. Hence the abbreviation " pics " which 
he uses in his letters. The tender reference to "Frank" 
Underwood is characteristic. Mr. Underwood was the 
first editor of the Atlantic Monthly and a literary man of 
high order. In 1885 Mr. Cleveland sent him as consul to 
Glasgow to succeed Bret Harte. In 1893 he sent him to 
Edinburgh, and each appointment was made on the request 
of Mr. Collins. They were close personal friends. Frank 
Harris, to whom he refers with regret over missing him, is 
the medical examiner of Suffolk County, a lifelong friend. 



128 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

William L. Wilson was chairman of the Ways and Means 
Committee in the House of Representatives and author of 
the WUson Tariff Bill. 

Consulate-general of the United States, 
London, November 9, 1894. 

Dear Curran: Well, you didn't know it all on the 26th, and I don't 
suppose any one guessed it. Whew ! wasn't it a blizzard ! Let's say 
no more about it but sober off to set our house in some sort of order — 
for moving or otherwise. 

Wilson accepted that dinner before I saw him. Of course it was 
a mistake, considering how the fact would surely be dealt with. I went 
to the dinner myself to help take the edge off, if possible. As it appears 
to me at this distance he would have been beaten anyway, but it would 
have been wise not to put that club in the enemy's hand, but what is 
written is written. 

This is the only time since I came away that I am glad not to be 
at home. I hope the feeling won't last, and that the occasion for it 
will soon pass. 

You mention Mt. Ida — "it is still there." It is for sale now and 
will be until next spring or summer. After that if it does not sell it 
will keep for me. The corner will then be turned and I shall be count- 
ing the months and the days, and picking out the ship to sail home in. 

I feel about this as about Congress — not sorry I came, but glad 
to get home. Meanwhile, surely until next summer, if some white 
man takes a fancy to Mt. Ida and will pay $30,000 for it, I will let him 
have it, and take a mortgage for two-thirds of it, but if it remains for 
sale until next summer I am with you for a walk to it. 

We are all well here. Now I must quit for the gloom cometh. 
The day's work is done, and I will hie me to 'appy 'Ampstead. 

Drop me a line much, more, muchly. 

Consulate-general of the United States, 
London, February 5, 1895. 

Dear Curran : You have given me as usual the best inside of the 
city election. You don't surprise me a bit about Maguire's proposed 
retirement. The marvel is that he should have endured it so long; 
I suppose it was a matter of temperament, but I have not such. I 
don't know what the party will do for direction or leadership, but of 
course one or several will turn up. One thing, if possible, ought to be 
contrived, and now is the appointed time. New blood and a little less 
city employee, and a Httle introduction of other races than the "blood 
royal" should go into the city committee. If not, we shall be com- 
pelled to lose much necessary support. Other people will not stand 
an exclusively Celtic rule in Boston indefinitely. No other large city 
does. Witness New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, St. Louis, New Orleans, 
who saw that the politicians kept their heads together and "pass the 
honors round." This must be done in Boston. 

I'm afraid I cannot get over this year. I did think I could, but 
the railroad is going to run through my backyard and the evicted will 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 129 

have to seek shelter — no small matter, let me tell you. There are some 
forty thousand alleged furnished houses to be let, but almost all of them 
give you the shivers to look at them. 

Consulate-general of the United States, 
London, April 16, 1897. 

Dear Curran: It looks like going home at last. My wife went 
two weeks ago to get our new house ready. There will be billiards in 
it and pool likewise, so we shall not have to lose a boat finishing the 
game. 

I expect Osborne here about May ist, perhaps a little later, so I 
shall have time to settle my accounts, pack up, and get away about the 
29th of May. My landlord is in Spain and will not take the house oflf 
my hands until then, but if the Paris sails that day I may not go until 
June 5th. I won't take her anyhow. 

I shall be very, very glad to get home; I am hungry for it and all 
my friends that are left. We are all lonesome and sad for those that 
are gone. I shall have a lot to tell and a lot to hear, and Boston will 
appear almost new to me, and a good deal of it is, so I shall have sensa- 
tions. All well. May the Lord keep you. 



CHAPTER IX 

Mr. Collins as Mayor — His Methods of Administration — His 
Watchfulness over the City Treasury — Some of his More 
Notable Vetoes — His Relations with his Subordinates — His 
Contempt for Meanness in Politics. 

IT was with much reluctance that Mr. Collins consented, 
in 1899, to consider seriously the urgent request of a 
number of the leading Democrats of the city that he 
should become the party candidate for mayor. However 
high he might value the confidence of his associates in the 
party, and however great he might consider the honor of 
holding the ofhce of mayor, he had an instinctive distaste 
for municipal politics. During the four years of Mayor 
O'Brien's service, the four years of Mayor Matthews's 
service, and the four years of Mr. Quincy's service he 
probably had not entered the City Hall a half dozen times, 
and then only to attend some committee hearing or look 
after the interests of a client in some of the departments. It 
was twenty-five years since he had been a member of the 
city committee, and its chairman, and during that quarter 
of a century many changes had taken place in respect to the 
personnel and the methods employed. The jealousies and 
bickerings which culminated in the creation of factions he 
despised and deprecated as a waste of party material. His 
appeal in all his public career had never been to faction or 
to section ; it was always to the whole people, on the honesty 
and integrity of whom he placed the utmost reliance. 

So when he began to consider the question of standing for 
a nomination he had all these things in mind, and he hesi- 
tated for many weeks before he finally permitted himself to 
be persuaded. He realized that he was going to meet with 
opposition in the ranks of his own party. A Democratic 
administration had been in power for four years, and during 
that time many ambitious statesmen and many avaricious 
spoilsmen had met with disappointment. As a shrewd 

130 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 131 

politician said at the time, the party was due for a beating. 
The split which the silver agitation of 1896 and 1898 had 
caused was not yet healed. Men who had been political 
friends prior to that time had grown to be political enemies, 
and so the outlook was not bright for a clean and decent 
campaign upon the merits of candidates. As the contest 
developed, all the disagreeable and perplexing and dis- 
couraging animosities and bickerings which had been pre- 
dicted and feared were fully developed. The struggle 
for supremacy in the primary contest was very bitter. Mr. 
Collins won a majority of the delegates and the convention 
placed him in nomination, but the conflict did not end here. 
His opponent in the primary canvass did not take defeat 
gracefully, and after some negotiations with the candidate 
of the opposition party and his representatives, he and a 
number of his personal followers decided to run counter 
to the instructions of the convention, and transfer their 
influence to the Republican side. This fact, coupled with a 
series of mistakes made by the campaign directors of the 
city committee, led to Mr. Collins's defeat. 

During the two years' term of Mr. Hart the Democratic 
forces had time to realize the mistake that had been made, 
and they were impatient to right the wrong which had been 
done to the candidate of the Democracy. It was a signifi- 
cant fact that during these two years no other candidate was 
seriously considered for the nomination, and wherever Mr. 
Collins appeared in public he was applauded and cheered 
as the "next mayor of Boston." This notion had taken a 
very strong hold upon the popular mind, and the effect of it 
grew larger and larger as the time approached for the holding 
of the party caucuses in 1901. 

At the primary elections Mr. Collins had a walk-over; 
there was no one else in sight. A spirited campaign was made 
between the convention and the elections, and when the 
returns came in on election night it was found that Mr. 
Collins had defeated his opponent. Mayor Hart, by nearly 
twenty thousand votes.^ This was the largest majority that 

^ He received 52,035 votes and Mr. Hart received 33,196. His 
plurality, therefore, was 18,839. Two years later he received a smaller 
vote but a larger pluraUty. The official counts gave him 48,745 votes 
to his opponent's 22,369, a plurality of 26,376, the largest ever given to 
any candidate. 



132 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

had ever been given to a candidate for mayor in Boston. It 
was quite evident from an analysis of the vote that a number 
of RepubHcan electors had voted for the Democratic nominee, 
and so he went into office with a very solid and substantial 
backing of the citizens at large. He realized the responsi- 
bility which this condition imposed upon him, and he tried 
during his first term so to perform the duties of his office 
that the confidence reposed in him by the taxpayers should 
not be weakened. 

Realizing that the city had got into debt rather heavily 
by some considerable expenditures of money in perhaps 
doubtful ventures, he served notice upon the city council 
that there was need of caution, prudence, and economy in the 
disposal of the public funds. He contended that Boston 
had run somewhat too far in the direction of benevolent 
socialism, and he was determined, if possible, to check that 
tendency and bring about a season of sober reflection and 
repose. He devoted himself assiduously to the study of 
municipal problems and the examination of municipal meth- 
ods, and tried in every way he could possibly do so to im- 
prove the service by improving the personnel and the methods 
of administration. Mr. Collins was not a reformer in the 
sense in which that term is generally used and understood. 
He was a quiet, careful, and unostentatious man, who wanted 
honest work done for the city, and who hoped to secure better 
results for Boston and its taxpayers by strict attention to 
business and a careful scrutiny of the expenditures. 

He entertained a very strong aversion to the practice so 
common among some public officials of exploiting their 
views before the public through the columns of the press. 
Only on very rare occasions did he communicate his plans 
or purposes to the reporters. Whenever he sent a message 
to the city council in the early months of his administration, 
the reporters flocked to the mayor's office to get an interview 
upon the subject-matter of the document. His reply to such 
requests was that the message should tell its own story, 
that all the information which the city council and the public 
required was contained in the paper itself. While he was on 
very friendly terms with all the reporters who came to the 
City Hall in search of news, he was generally regarded as the 
worst news factor that had held the office for a generation. 

Early in the first year of his term he was called upon to 



MAYOR COLLINS WALKING TO THE CITY FROM HIS HOME 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 133 

entertain two very distinguished European delegations. The 
brother of the German Emperor visited America, ostensibly 
for the purpose of looking after some yachting matters in 
which he was deeply interested, but really he came as a 
representative of the German Empire to present to Har- 
vard College a valuable addition to the Germanic Museum 
which had been established there. Of course, the visit of a 
member of the imperial family must necessarily have some 
diplomatic and international significance, and so it was 
decided that he should visit Washington and other large 
centres of population in the United States. Being a high 
ofhcer in the German navy, he also paid a visit to Annapolis 
and inspected the naval school. It was the desire of the 
President that wherever this distinguished scion of the royal 
house of Prussia should go as the guest of the nation, the 
local authorities should take pains to give him some form of 
entertainment commensurate with his rank and with the 
high purpose of his mission. 

Early in February the government at Washington, through 
the State Department, notified the mayor that it was the pur- 
pose of Prince Henry of Prussia to visit the city of Boston, 
and to spend a day there and at Harvard University in 
Cambridge. The Secretary of State requested that the city 
assist the government in showing proper courtesies to him 
during his sojourn within its precincts. The customary 
practice on such occasions is, if time will allow, to give to a 
visitor like Prince Henry a public dinner, to which might 
be bidden a number of representative citizens to meet him. 
The selection of just the number of citizens who could be 
accommodated in a dining hall is a very difficult problem. 
There are probably ten thousand men in the city of Boston 
who might be called representative, and who as such might 
be entitled to be present on an occasion of that sort. How 
to select two hundred and fifty or three hundred of those 
without doing injury to the feelings of the seven thousand 
five hundred or the seven thousand others is a difficulty 
which any man might shrink from encountering. But Mr. 
Collins solved the problem with rare discretion and tact. 
After allotting to the Germanic Museum Association a num- 
ber of seats at the banquet table, he selected the presidents 
of trade organizations, banking organizations, social clubs, 
patriotic societies, and other bodies of a representative char- 



134 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

acter. The men who had been chosen to lead by their fellows 
in these different organizations were the men that were in- 
vited to the feast. He invited no man because of any social 
distinction he might have achieved ; he invited no personal 
friend of his own, and he held inflexibly to his rule that only 
men who had been chosen to the highest positions in the 
various associations could receive invitations. The result 
was that the dinner was wholly representative of the very 
best element of the social, industrial, financial, and political 
life of the city. Although it was his first experience in an 
ajffair of this sort, Mayor Collins earned and received the 
applause and commendation of some of the most eminent 
men, socially speaking, in the city. 

For the brief speech of welcome he delivered on that oc- 
casion Mr. Collins also received many flattering compliments. 
It was an occasion when a less tactful man might have made 
serious mistakes. He might have said too much or too little, 
or he might have raised questions of controversy which would 
prove embarrassing. His speech, which is reproduced here, 
was in excellent taste. He said : — 

Your Royal Highness: We do not proffer you the freedom of 
the city, for that in this corner of the land has no meaning, but we give 
you a Boston welcome, — the freedom of our hearts and lodgment there 
forever. 

We greet you as the scion of an illustrious house, as a representa- 
tive of a mighty and friendly nation, and as a gentleman seeking to know 
us and the whole world better. 

Our intercourse may not — probably will not — lead to a parlia- 
ment of man and federation of the world, but it will tend, with all the 
other active agencies, to a better understanding among all peoples. 

Between your people and ours for more than a century there have 
been untroubled peace, mutually profitable commerce, and a friendly 
rivalry. We are rivals to-day in the greater industries and for the trade 
of the world, but it is a splendid, manly rivalry, and each will bow to 
the other where excellence commands. 

Between us there never will be a dispute that cannot be settled 
by conference at a fireside, or even by the modern ambassador, 
the cable. Between us there is nothing but good will, — there never 
shall be, — and these bring that peace which passeth all understanding. 

From all quarters of the globe we have come to make this republic 
and build this city. No single country is our motherland or fatherland; 
for America there is no motherland or fatherland — except the whole 
wide world. 

The blood of all the races of man commingle here in a composite 
stream. We are fused and formed into a new harmonious national 
force — the American republic. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 135 

Boston is but a small mirror of the whole country to-night in re- 
flecting its thoughts and in flashing its welcome. The people of this 
country are not merely Americans — to them all mankind is kin. But 
to freely paraphrase the welcome of an English poet to the princess 
who married your royal kinsman : — 

" Norman and Dane are we, 
Saxon and Celt are we, 
Teuton and Frank are we, 
Latin and Slav are we, 
But all of us Prussian in our welcome to thee." 

Two months later the occasion of the dedication of a 
monument to Count Rochambeau, who had commanded the 
French legions that came to America to assist Washington 
in his fight with the English, brought a distinguished dele- 
gation of French statesmen, soldiers, and civilians. These 
were also the guests of the United States government during 
their stay in America. They made a tour of the country as 
did their German neighbors, and visited Boston and Har- 
vard College. The same obligation to entertain them de- 
volved upon the city that had devolved upon it in the case of 
the German visitors, and with the same grace and tact as 
though he had been accustomed all his life to dealing in the 
niceties of high social life, Mr. Collins won the favor of his 
French visitors by his courtesy, his urbanity, and his thought- 
ful hospitality. 

During all this time he was busily engaged in the work 
of organizing the government according to his own views of 
what should constitute its personnel. With the exception of 
two of the principal financial departments and the Board of 
Assessors and the engineer, he made new appointments to fill 
the places vacated by the expiration of the terms of office 
of the representatives of the previous administration. The 
purpose which he had in view was very well illustrated by 
the character of the new appointees. Impressing upon 
their minds the necessity of economy and honesty in the ad- 
ministration, he notified the heads of the departments that 
wherever any laxity or dishonesty was discovered the head 
of the department and not the individual would be held 
responsible. And so he went through his first two years of 
office without the slightest breath of scandal or the minutest 
insinuation of dishonesty or fraud or peculation. He was 
a candidate for renomination and reelection in 1903, and 



136 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

he carried the primaries without the slightest difficuUy. On 
election day his majority was close to twenty-eight thousand, 
an increase of ten thousand over the previous election. He 
had been tried by the citizens and had been found not 
wanting. It was a remarkable tribute which the citizens paid 
to him, and more particularly the men who had the largest 
interests at risk in the city. It was estimated by political 
experts that he must have received between ten and twelve 
thousand Republican votes. 

In his second administration he was less hampered than 
he had been previously, owing to the fact that he had but 
few offices to bestow, so he devoted himself more assiduously 
to the study of the necessities of the city with respect to the 
reduction of its burdens and the prevention of further en- 
croachments by the Commonwealth upon its revenues. 
These encroachments had been growing in dimension, and 
in the persistency with which they were levied, for a number 
of years. Mr. Collins constantly rebelled against these 
numerous and heavy drafts upon the tax levy of the city for 
the maintenance and improvement of metropolitan parks, 
metropolitan sewers, and metropolitan waterworks. More- 
over, each year the legislature discovered some new form of 
exaction. Many new bills were sure to be introduced and 
passed in each legislature compelling the city of Boston to 
borrow money for some scheme which Boston did not want 
or approve. In addresses before the legislative committees 
and in speeches upon public occasions he constantly pro- 
tested against this form of plundering the city and increasing 
its burdens to the breaking-point. During the administration 
of Governor Crane he found a very faithful ally in his efforts 
to prevent the increase of the city's financial obligations 
through legislative acts. Governor Crane never signed a 
bill affecting the city of Boston without consulting the mayor. 
The same could not be said of Governor Bates or Governor 
Douglas, both of whom signed numerous bills designed to 
raid the city treasury, without ever asking him whether he 
approved or disapproved. When these were passed by the 
city council, Mr. Collins was obliged to veto them, and to 
use all his influence to secure favorable action upon the veto 
message. This was very noticeable in the case of the legis- 
lative act of 1904 compelling Boston to borrow $100,000 
and apply that sum to the erection of a hospital in East 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 137 

Boston. Mr. Collins had repeatedly shown that the City 
Hospital trustees were opposed to this scheme. Through 
his legislative representatives he fought the measure at its 
various stages, but it was passed by both branches of the 
legislature and signed by the governor (Douglas) without 
any consultation with the mayor of the city or any question 
being asked whether the city wanted a hospital in East 
Boston, or whether the borrowing of $100,000 would prove a 
source of embarrassment. Mr. Crane was a Republican and 
a resident of the western part of the state ; Mr. Bates was a 
resident and taxpayer in Boston; and Mr. Douglas was a 
Democrat, committed by his party convention to the prin- 
ciple of home rule and an economical expenditure of the 
public money. And yet of the three Mr. Crane was the only 
governor, who, at all times, and on all occasions, respected 
the right of Boston to have a voice in the enactment of laws 
compelling her to spend money. 

The utter disregard of the interests of the taxpayers and 
of the inviolability of the city treasury, which was too often 
manifested by the city council, was a constant source of 
discouragement to Mayor Collins. Both branches would 
vote to increase salaries and wages of city employees, grant 
pensions to anybody who presented a plausible case, and 
give away franchises to private corporations and individuals 
without paying the slightest heed to the financial condi- 
tion of the municipality or the comfort and convenience of 
citizens. The beneficiaries of these liberal grants immediately 
would lay siege to the mayor's office, bringing influential 
men, friends of the mayor, to plead with him for his signature. 
For days and days this stream of petitioners would continue 
in almost unbroken order, entreating and sometimes threaten- 
ing dire political disaster unless the action of the city council 
was confirmed and made operative in their favor by execu- 
tive approval. But neither threats nor entreaties could prove 
effective. Mr. Collins stood guard over the treasury vaults ; 
and the city council was sure to get, in a ringing veto mes- 
sage, a forcible reminder of their duty and their obligations 
to the people. 

In 1903 the state legislature passed ''an act to authorize 
the city of Boston to make payments to the widows or next 
of kin of its deceased employees." The "referendum" was 
attached to the bill, and it could not become effective until 



138 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

it had been accepted by the city council. In August, 1904, 
the act was accepted by the city council and sent to the 
mayor for his approval. In a veto message sent to the Board 
of Aldermen on August 13, he scored the attempt to grant 
gratuities to persons who had rendered no service to the 
city as a species of plunder and robbery. "Neither the 
legislature nor the city council," he wrote, "has the con- 
stitutional or moral right to use the public money raised by 
taxation for any such purpose. The public money raised 
by taxation can be used legitimately only for the public 
benefit, — for public improvements, for the maintenance of 
the public establishment, and for services rendered to the pub- 
lic. It is true that pensions are paid to war veterans, police- 
men, and firemen, engaged in hazardous lines of work, when 
disabled or worn out, and the reasons for placing them in 
classes by themselves are apparent; but these pensions 
cease upon the death of the recipient, and no public money 
is authorized to be paid to the widow or dependents. The 
state has not adopted the policy of pensions to civil em- 
ployees engaged in routine or non-hazardous work, but, 
on the contrary, it has set its face against it at every stage. 
The courts have decided over and over again that the money 
raised by taxation, and all public money, can be constitu- 
tionally used only for the public benefit. It cannot be said 
that, when a city employee dies, a payment to his widow or 
next of kin for no service rendered to the public is in any 
sense a public benefit, or anything whatever but a benefit to 
the receiver of the bounty." The veto was sustained and 
the measure failed. 

Another raid on the city treasury was attempted by the 
Legislature of 1904, when it enacted a law to force the city of 
Boston to pay pensions to members of the police signal ser- 
vice. These are not policemen, they are simply hired as 
repair men, linemen, and drivers. They are not exposed to 
the risks and hazards to which policemen are exposed. On 
these grounds the mayor vetoed the order of the city council 
accepting the legislative act. "These men," he said, "are 
compensated liberally as compared with other city employees 
and especially as compared with men doing similar service 
outside of the city employ. Their compensation ranges 
from $1000 to $2500 a year, and out of such salaries they 
ought to be able to lay up something for 'a rainy day,' as 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 139 

Other men less favored do. I object most emphatically to 
the further extension of civil pensions to men who are not 
engaged in extra-hazardous employments. The city cannot 
afford it, and the men who are paid for services rendered 
must insure themselves." 

In December, 1904, the Board of Aldermen, acting as sur- 
veyors of highways, granted a location for a railroad to be 
constructed in the streets of East Boston and operated by 
and for the benefit of a Delaware corporation known as the 
Massachusetts Wharf Trust. The reasons assigned in the 
veto message of the mayor for the witholding of his approval 
were : that the permit granted a main line of nearly two miles 
in length, while the petition called for only a spur-track; 
that no limit as to the number of cars to be operated or the 
hours during which they were to be operated had been fixed ; 
that public inconvenience was sure to result, with risk of life 
and limb. But above all these lesser reasons towered the 
principle which should not be lost sight of by those who had 
the right to grant franchises in the public ways. This prin- 
ciple Mr. Collins stated very forcibly and very lucidly as 
follows : — 

"If this franchise — to use some two miles of the public 
property .indefinitely — is valuable, let it be paid for ; the pay- 
ment might take expression in compensating the people whose 
property is depreciated, and, if the railway be regarded as a 
public necessity or convenience, compensation might take 
expression in a contribution to the public treasury ; or, better 
still, in both ways. Those who occupy the public property 
for their own convenience or gain should pay in some way 
for the ground they occupy, and for the inconvenience to 
which they put others who are not themselves directly involved 
in the benefit. The time has come when the public should 
exact from every company or individual seeking the use of 
public property the value of the privilege sought, and all the 
money should find its way into the city treasury, in excess 
of that which compensates persons directly damaged," 

The company to which the franchise had been voted by 
the aldermen had secured its charter in Delaware. It was 
therefore a "foreign corporation," although its officers were 
citizens of Massachusetts. Reminding the aldermen of 
their duty to conserve the interests of Boston's citizens and 
taxpayers the mayor made this suggestion : — 



I40 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

"li citizens of Boston want a franchise such as you have 
voted, it would be merely decent for them to organize under 
the liberal laws of this Commonwealth, and pay their pro- 
portion of the public burden that the citizens are carrying, 
instead of organizing in a foreign jurisdiction and paying a 
nominal sum, if any, for their existence. Public franchises, 
when reasonable and required by public convenience, should 
be granted to our own people, organized under our own laws, 
and paying our own franchise and local taxes ; but no fran- 
chise to use the public property should ever be granted with- 
out full compensation to individuals directly injured by its 
exercise, and, as well, a contribution to the support of the 
public burden. Moreover, every railway corporation, small 
or large, operating here must be subject to the supervision 
and control of the Railroad Commissioners of Massachu- 
setts." 

But the greatest contest of his administration was over the 
granting of a franchise to another East Boston company, 
the National Dock Trust, a corporation in which some of 
the most prominent merchants and financiers of the city 
were concerned. The grant by the Board of Aldermen 
was of a privilege, for an indefinite time, of laying tracks 
for the operation of a steam railway across four public streets 
and along one of these streets for a distance of over two 
hundred feet. To induce Mr. Collins to approve the grant 
of this franchise extraordinary pressure was exerted. Some 
of his closest friends, socially and politically, were directly 
interested in the scheme ; others were indirectly interested. 
A delegation of merchants, bankers, shippers, landowners, 
and capitalists, representing hundreds of millions of dollars, 
waited upon him and had their case presented by able attor- 
neys. But he would not yield. He held the principle to be 
wrong and vicious, and he disapproved the grant in a mes- 
sage that attracted wide attention. Among other things he 
said : ''Now that, after thirty years of agitation, we are spend- 
ing hundreds of thousands of dollars to abate the nuisance of 
grade crossings in East Boston, it seems a singularly inoppor- 
tune time to create a similar nuisance. The public streets 
of a city should never be condemned to the inconvenience 
and perils of steam railway operation, unless demanded by 
the plainest public necessity. In this case there is not the 
smallest pretence that a public necessity exists, or, indeed. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 141 

that the pubHc convenience is to be promoted." He con- 
tended that the petitioners had no more right to the use 
of the pubhc streets and highways for their private use than 
any other wharf owner or dock owner on the island. "The 
pubHc interest is all on one side," he said in conclusion; 
*'and we are here to protect it and to save the streets and 
keep them reasonably safe for the use of the general public, 
who own them and pay for their maintenance." 

Mr. Collins's reverence for the ancient or patriotic land- 
marks of Boston was as great, if not greater, than that of the 
average Bostonian of Puritan or Pilgrim stock. For the 
common he had a positive affection; Faneuil Hall he re- 
garded as sacred ground. He favored the preservation of 
the Old South Meeting-house long years ago, when commer- 
cial vandalism, hiding itself behind the cloak of progress, 
would obliterate it or turn it into a mart of trade. The Gran- 
ary and Copps Hill burying-grounds he would retain in their 
primitive state. When the Board of Aldermen voted to 
give the use of Faneuil Hall for the purpose of holding a 
poultry show, he vetoed the order and reminded the thought- 
less city fathers that where Liberty had found a cradle and 
a forum for the free discussion of the rights of man was no 
place to set up a market for the sale of prize hens or pigeons. 
Such a use of the building would be a profanation. Simi- 
larly, when a contractor had been permitted by the Transit 
Commission to erect a manufacturing plant for mixing his 
cement on Boston Common, he sent a long-distance protest 
from Virginia against the invasion, and when he returned 
from his vacation and learned that the society for the preser- 
vation of the common had fallen in with the commercialism 
of the time, and had ceased to protest because the business 
men might be incommoded if the plant were taken from 
the common and set up in front of somebody's store, he 
expressed his contempt for the veneered patriotism that 
exploits itself in times of peace but skulks behind oppor- 
tunism when there is trouble. 

Contrary to general expectation, Mr. Collins, in a short 
time, obtained a mastery over the details of the business of 
the city. It was the opinion of those who knew him that he 
would take only a superficial view of affairs and intrust the 
details to others. This was erroneous. Mr. Collins, in six 
months, had a good knowledge of what was transpiring in 



142 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

the several departments. He had a wonderful memory 
for names, faces, and suggestions. The politicians were 
amazed at the way he recalled incidents applicable to their 
cases. His wonderful insight into political conditions and 
situations made them more careful in their statements in 
his presence. He knew practically what was going on in all 
the great departments, and he continually warned his chief 
lieutenants against peculation, dishonesty, and inefficiency. 
So long as he had faith in the head of a department he stood 
by him. He required not rumors or slanders but proof of 
misfeasance before he could be induced to take action against 
him. He made it a rule, and he always observed it, not to 
listen to slanders or insinuations against one of his appointees. 
When a man or a woman brought charges, verbally, against 
any of his subordinates, he promptly sent for the accused, 
and gave him an opportunity to meet and refute his 
accuser. 

In his relations with his chief lieutenants, Mr. Collins was 
always cordial, courteous, and dignified. With the public, 
whom he met collectively and individually, he was pleasant, 
except when he reached the conclusion that the speeches 
delivered and the earnest and urgent prayers and entreaties 
which were put forth to influence him were designed to get 
money out of the treasury by false pretences or by some other 
unfair means. If such a notion or suspicion secured per- 
manent lodgment in his head, it made him irritable. He 
would rather do a favor for a man who called on him than 
refuse him. But the favors generally asked, it was impos- 
sible to grant. It often vexed him to be unable to grant a 
friend's request, and too often this feeling was exaggerated 
and increased by the unveiled assumption of the petitioner 
that he could grant it if he so wished without troubling his 
conscience. He grasped the nature of a subject and seized 
upon the kernel of a case with marvellous quickness, and as 
soon as his knowledge was complete he acted with prompt- 
ness. Men who approached him with a request, and who 
had come prepared to argue at some length in favor of its 
granting, were often surprised to see the mayor reach up for 
the papers, affix his signature, and send the whole matter to 
the clerk's office to be recorded, and all inside of two minutes. 
Some men who were thus treated would persist in arguing, 
only to be informed that a lawyer would be very foolish to 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 143 

make a plea to a judge or a jury after his client had been 
acquitted and discharged. 

Mr. Colhns wrote all his own messages except those of a 
routine nature. When he had a knotty case to settle, he took 
the documents to his home and there studied all the phases 
of it in his library. He hunted the law and the precedents, 
and weighed everything to be found that bore upon both 
sides. Some morning he would come into the office and toss 
a bunch of manuscript over to my desk with a request to read 
it and then see that it was typed. He had a literary style 
all his own. It was direct, terse, luminous, and to the point. 
He wasted no words, and he resorted to no circumlocution 
to befog the reader or becloud the issue involved. Nobody 
could misunderstand his language. It was plain, direct, and 
expressive. 

The character of the man was well illustrated in his treat- 
ment of the office force. With them he was free, always acces- 
sible, and always tolerant. No favor that could be granted 
without injury to the service was ever denied them. In 
the three years and nine months of his service as mayor, he 
never, with one or two exceptions, kept the clerks or any of 
them after hours. He disposed of the bulk of his correspon- 
dence in the forenoon, and when he went out on a business 
trip in the afternoon, as he sometimes did, he rarely returned. 
He believed that the legitimate business of the office could, 
with proper system and attention, be transacted during the 
working hours prescribed by the ordinances. The result 
was that his immediate corps of clerks and messengers enter- 
tained an affection for him that was heightened by the feel- 
ing of respect which his kindness and uniform courtesy 
engendered. To the men who drove his carriage, blacked 
his boots, and did his tonsorial work he was always generous. 
They felt proud of the opportunity to be in close proximity 
to him and to hear him talk. He always had something 
agreeable, witty, and kind to say to them. The newsboys 
tumbled over one another to have a chance to sell him a paper 
as he walked toward the subway. To those in humble 
station he was ever kindly and considerate. 

The petty meannesses of practical politics he despised 
and execrated. The whispered slander, the base and base- 
less insinuation, the wilful misrepresentation, and the cunning 
diabolism which suggested unworthy motives for men's 



144 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

acts angered him immoderately. He never objected to fair 
criticism of his public actions. He courted it. It was the 
waspish nagging that stung to the quick. He would open a 
paper in the morning and find a full report of an interview 
with himself which never took place. Another paper would 
report him sick at home, his illness being so serious that a 
consultation of physicians was deemed necessary. He was 
at his office while this bogus consultation was in progress. 
If he went to the celebration of some anniversary of a Ger- 
man, a Scotch, or a Swedish national event, cartoons were 
circulated showing him in the costume of the nationality 
which he honored. These were distributed secretly in 
quarters where it was thought wise to break his strength. 
He would laugh at this silly sort of campaigning, but the 
meanness of it troubled him. The purpose of all these under- 
hand methods was to drive him from the mayoralty field and 
give somebody else a chance. But it is extremely doubtful 
if such tactics would have succeeded. Although nobody 
had authority from him to say so, it is a facf that he was get- 
ting into a frame of mind favorable to a third term. He 
had received very strong assurances of substantial support 
from the great business interests, the real estate interests, 
and from men high up in the mercantile world, which would 
have been a powerful factor in determining his attitude 
tow^ard the men who had been paving the way for his success 
at the primaries and at the polls. It was his purpose to 
think the matter out thoroughly during his two weeks' stay 
in Virginia, and to give his answer when he returned about 
October i. But vain are all earthly calculations. Provi- 
dence ruled that he appear at a higher court to give an ac- 
count of his stewardship, and removed him from the strife 
and the bickerings of politics to enjoy the peace that passeth 
all understanding. 



CHAPTER X 

Mr. Collins AS AN Anti-Imperialist — His Love for Human Freedom 
— Great Speech before the New Jersey Democracy on the 
Theft of Puerto Rico and the Philippines — Other Addresses 
on the Same Topic. 

BEING absent from the country during the campaign 
of 1896, Mr. ColHns did not get involved in the sil- 
ver agitation, which, for a time, disrupted the Demo- 
cratic party. The extreme devotees of the financial 
fetich of that troublous period accused him of dodging the 
issue, while others charged openly that he was a "gold bug, " 
because of his protracted association with the dispensers 
of British gold, a commodity which is perennially invoked 
in this country to excite the ire of Celtic politicians and pa- 
triots. As a matter of fact he made no formal declaration 
upon the question, nor, for the matter of that, upon any other 
question that entered into the campaign during his official 
residence in London. What he thought and believed was 
another matter. If he had been obliged to take a position 
on the subject of the free and unlimited coinage of silver at 
a ratio of 16 to i, he would have been in the opposition. Like 
every well-minded Jeffersonian Democrat, he was a bimetal- 
list. But he did not approve the setting up of a fixed ratio 
which might prove inadequate and unscientific as conditions 
changed. When he returned in the spring of 1897, the new 
administration was preparing to establish the gold standard 
for international effect, while putting the country upon a 
silver basis so far as domestic trade and domestic circulating 
medium were concerned. In 1898 the work was completed 
by Congress, and the issue passed out of the domain of prac- 
tical politics. Then came the w^ar with Spain, a conflict 
that presented many humorous features, but which be- 
queathed to the nation a batch of vexatious problems that 
have not yet been satisfactorily solved. During the war Mr. 
Collins was a member of a committee of distinguished and 

145 



146 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

public-spirited citizens of Massachusetts who equipped a 
rehef ship and otherwise contributed materially to the health 
and comfort of the men who had volunteered to sacrifice 
their lives that Cuba might be free and independent. He 
gave liberally of his time and his judgment in this work, re- 
garding it as a duty which every good citizen was bound in 
honor to perform. 

The liberation of Cuba from Spanish domination Mr. 
Collins regarded as a highly praiseworthy effort on the part 
of the United States. He was in hearty sympathy with the 
position taken by the administration in declaring war and 
in coupling with that declaration a solemn disavowal of any 
intent to acquire territory or to achieve any political aggran- 
dizement. The lofty attitude of Mr. McKinley and his ad- 
visers in the crisis, which was forced upon them, he avowed, 
was in keeping with the best traditions of the Republic. 
It was, after Mr. Cleveland's warning to England in the 
Venezuela case, the best and most practical application of 
the Monroe Doctrine since its promulgation. If the United 
States had any duties to perform outside its own prescribed 
boundaries, surely here was a legitimate field of action. 
The treatment of Cuba by Spain had been growing worse 
and more brutal year by year, and the exercise of monarchical 
tyranny and mediaeval oppression at the very door of a free 
republic had become intolerable to a free people. The 
Cubans had, for more than a century, disputed the right of 
Spain to govern them, and had repeatedly taken up arms to 
give emphasis to their protest, and to demonstrate to the world 
their desire to be free and independent. Mr. Collins always 
contended that a people who are ready and willing to fight 
for liberty, and who keep up the fight after repeated reverses, 
are entitled to it. He applied this principle to the Irish strug- 
gle, and held firmly, till his death, to the belief and conviction 
that England had no moral right to govern Ireland against 
her seven centuries of protest and organized opposition. But 
his instinct for human freedom was not confined or circum- 
scribed by any narrow bounds of race, religion, locality, 
or color. Whether the people battling for the right to govern 
themselves were Irish, Cubans, Hungarians, Poles, Boer 
farmers, or Filipinos; whether they were white or black 
or brown; whether they worshipped God according to 
Catholic doctrine and dogma or in conformity with the 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 147 

Westminster confession ; whether they knelt before a Chris- 
tian shrine or prostrated themselves on the plains or steppes 
in an act of devotion, mattered not to him. He held that 
they should be free. He contended that no man was good 
enough to govern another, and that this rule applied to nations 
as well as to men. 

And so when the campaign of 1900 got well under way 
his interest in the honor and faith of the nation led him to 
take an active part in the canvass. The fact that the Chicago 
platform containing the fixed monetary ratio had been 
adopted at Kansas City by order of Mr. Bryan did not deter 
him. He ignored that part of the Democratic program 
entirely. The engrossing question of ratios and of standards, 
he declared, had been settled by the people in 1896, and had 
been eliminated by Congress from the realm of disputed 
issues. The Senate and House of Representatives had all 
the power that the people could bestow upon them for the 
purpose of disposing of the vexed question whether silver 
or gold should be the standard, or whether the country should 
have a double standard, and they had elected a President 
who had changed his attitude on the money question to suit the 
changed conditions. He fell in with the great corporations, 
the great industrial combinations, and the powerful syndicates, 
and he stood ready to sign any bill which might come to 
him from the Capitol. It is true that Secretary Gage had 
warned the country, soon after the Kansas City convention, 
that, notwithstanding the emphatic verdict of the people in 
1896, the thorough manner in which Congress had obeyed 
the popular mandate, and the efficient work which he had 
done as head of the treasury, it was still possible for Mr. 
Bryan, if he should be elected, to put the country on a silver 
basis by paying out the silver in the treasury in governnient 
settlements. So the Republican party that was swept into 
power on the high wave of the "sound money" agitation 
was willing to admit that it required a new lease of political 
life for four years to complete its work. 

Early in the autumn of 1900 Mr. Collins received invita- 
tions through the national committee from all the great states 
where a sharp contest was expected. At first he declined to 
do any hard campaign work, but the pressure was great, 
and he was forced to abandon his attitude of inactivity. 
He selected the state of New Jersey, which had gone over tq 



148 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

the Republican column in 1896 on the money question, as 
the state in which to deliver his first speech in American 
politics since 1892. The Democratic party held its conven- 
tion at Trenton early in the second week in September, 
and Mr. Collins addressed the assembled delegates on the 
issues of the campaign. The dominant note of that address 
was Imperialism. All other questions, he contended, had 
been relegated to the rear by the seizure of Puerto Rico as a 
prize of the war, and by the purchase of the Philippine Islands. 
These acts of aggression, coming after Mr. McKinley had 
piously pledged his own and the nation's honor not to seize 
or acquire any territory as a consequence of the armed in- 
tervention in behalf of Cuba, had shifted the country tem- 
porarily from its constitutional moorings and placed it in 
the same class with the monarchical nations of the Old World, 
whose practice always has been to seize, by force or fraud, 
the territory of weaker nations and peoples. Adverting to 
the scare put out by Secretary Gage, Mr. Collins said that 
even if a volume of silver could be added to the currency, 
and if this inflation would create a fiscal derangement or 
even a monetary panic, the resultant evil would be small 
compared with that involved in the destruction of our political 
system. *'A cold in the head can be cured, but general 
paralysis spells death." But on whichever side men ranged 
themselves four years ago, the paramount issue of that strug- 
gle has passed by, and people are considering another and a 
far more serious question, ''indeed more serious than any 
that has confronted our people since the colonies broke 
from George III. To make this statement it is not neces- 
sary to forget the Civil War; for that war, prolonged, bitter, 
costly, and woful, was still not an attempt to destroy the 
republican principle, but a conflict to decide whether we 
should have two republics instead of on^ The question 
now is whether we shall have a republic at all. In the 
Civil War human slavery as an incident entered in ; so did 
other questions like the conduct of the war itself, the scheme 
of finance, and the general administration of affairs ; but what 
was kept in clear view every hour in those fateful years by 
all the people in the land was whether the Union should 
stand or fall." 

Arguing strongly and eloquently along this line, he im- 
pressed forcibly upon the New Jersey Democrats the im- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 149 

portance of keeping all side issues and all academic ques- 
tions in the background until the character and structure of 
the Republic could be determined. If popular sanction 
should be given to the undemocratic policy of seizing or pur- 
chasing foreign territory, ruling people against their will in 
direct and open violation of our own Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, setting up vassal states, governing subject peo- 
ples, the Republic would cease to exist as it was founded, and 
the foundation of an empire would be laid upon its ruins. 
It was not a question whether the war with Spain was wise 
or ill-advised as a national venture, it was simply a question 
of our good faith with the world and of the preservation of 
our political system. The good faith of the government 
with the people was also involved. "If," said Mr. Collins, 
"it had been proposed when Congress voted the supplies, 
that we should seize Puerto Rico, deprive its people of their 
Spanish market, and deny them ours on equal terms, and 
refuse them the smallest voice in the management of their 
own domestic affairs, not one dollar would have been voted 
for the purpose of carrying on the war in Cuba. If it had 
been a part of the program that we should take the Philip- 
pine Islands, with or without cash payment, with or without 
the consent of the inhabitants, adopt them as states, or rule 
them as subjects, the proposal would have been instantly 
rejected. It would have been regarded as the scheme of a 
foolish political charlatan. But if beyond that it had been 
proposed that we should expel the Spaniards, buy the ty- 
rant's title, turn tyrant ourselves, proceed to make war upon 
the people and keep killing them for two years, solely be- 
cause they desired their own liberty, do you think the 
response of the American people would be anything but 
execration?" 

It was simply ~jad plainly a case of bad faith ; the admin- 
istration obtained money under false pretences. Puerto 
Rico was taken as an indemnity, and $20,000,000 was paid 
for an equity in a revolution in the Philippine Islands. 
WHien we embarked on this enterprise, Mr. Collins contended, 
we wanted not an inch of land nor the life of a single human 
being seeking freedom. "Whatever it would cost to make 
Cuba free, we had no thought of expecting an indemnity 
from Spain or reimbursement from Cuba; it was to be our 
chivalrous contribution to the cause of liberty and humanity. 



I50 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

This was the sentiment of all our people at the inception of 
the Spanish War ; it is still the sentiment of the vast majority 
when they look back and reflect." He next showed that 
apart from the great moral question involved the acquisition 
of the far-distant Philippine Islands was a bad bargain com- 
mercially speaking. The imports into the islands in 1897, 
a normal year, were valued at $10,000,000 for a population 
of ten million inhabitants. This may have increased some- 
what through the exportation from the United States of sup- 
plies for the army and navy and for the civil establishment. 
The wants of tropical nations are few and cannot be forced 
up by artificial means. So there is no prospect of getting 
back the sum paid for sovereignty over the people when the 
cost of collection is taken into account. It would have been 
far better, far more honorable, and far more profitable if 
we had let some one else govern and let ourselves trade with 
the people as we might. 

About that time there was a popular and a fallacious cry 
that ** trade follows the flag." The answer to this is, accord- 
ing to Mr. Collins's reasoning, that trade does nothing of the 
sort. ''Trade," said he, "does many queer things, but it 
never chases a flag. It seeks the world's markets by the 
clearest path on land and sea. Men buy where they can buy 
cheapest and sell where they can do so to the best advantage. 
There is no patriotism in trade. We had more trade last 
year than ever before in our history, and almost less flag; 
but all the trade we had worth counting was with people who 
flew other flags than ours and who bought our goods because 
they needed them, and they were the best offered in the mar- 
ket for the money. When we bought goods at the same time 
we looked at the quality and the price, never at the flag under 
which they were produced. It would be just the same a 
thousand years from now, even if half the world were in our 
keeping and all the people as docile as sheep." 

Another evil that grows out of the unwise and unprofitable 
acquisition and occupancy of the Philippine Islands is that 
it practically abrogates the Monroe Doctrine. The moment 
we say that we have a right to interfere in the politics of Eu- 
rope and Asia, — and interfere we must if we hold the Asiatic 
islands, — that moment we surrender exclusive right to 
shelter and protect the small republics in South and Central 
America. So long as the United States maintained its iso- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 151 

lation and its freedom from entanglements abroad, just so 
long it was free to look after the afifairs of continental America. 
When it becomes a world power, it must do its share of the 
international policeman's work, and it must wink at, if it 
does not aid and encourage, the work of plunder and spolia- 
tion, which is the purpose and aim of European nations in 
the Eastern country. There is no provision or warrant in 
our Constitution for such service. Nowhere in that instru- 
ment or in the Declaration of Independence do we find any 
direction for the government of vassal states or subject 
peoples. Even if the Filipinos gave their consent, Mr. Col- 
lins insisted that the establishment of a government over 
them would be outside of our constitutional functions. But 
no such consent had been given ; we had no invitation to set 
up a government in the Philippine Islands for the Filipino 
people. They were engaged, when Dewey landed there with 
his squadron of war ships, in trying to break the Spanish 
yoke just as the Cubans were. They had made a gallant 
struggle, too, and would have won eventually. They did not 
desire a change of masters or rulers; they desired Hberty 
and the right to govern themselves. Spain simply sold out 
her interest in the struggle and the United States took the 
doubtful title and proceeded to enforce it by the sword. 
"They are bent upon their liberty to-day," he continued, 
"and upon their independence just as much as they were 
before Dewey met the Spanish fleet in their waters. We 
must rule them, if at all, against their will and by brute force. 
We must send the youth of our land by the tens of thousands 
to kill them and be killed by them, to perish in their jungles 
or return wrecked for life. If we compel a peace at all, it 
will be like that which reigned in Warsaw, — a peace won 
at fearful cost of blood and treasure, and a people surviv- 
ing the struggle sullen and hostile in their hearts. Unless 
the invader conquers the hearts and wins the affections of the 
people, he murders in vain who conquers. We have killed 
men enough already in this mad and criminal business. To 
pursue it will be to still further redden our hands with the 
blood of brother men, to still further blacken the fame of 
this great republic." 

The contention that Providence delivered the islands into 
our hands Mr. Collins ridiculed and scouted ; he objected to 
the frequent repetition of the impudent claim that Providence 



152 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

was in partnership with the administration in this enterprise 
of grabbing other people's lands and stifling their aspira- 
tions for freedom. Mr. McKinley did not consult Provi- 
dence when he seized the Philippines. If his grandfather 
had done that he would not have laid the blame in that direc- 
tion; he would have said that ''the devil tempted him." 
What he took, however, was the tyrant's title of sovereignty, 
never acknowledged in the former troubled centuries by the 
people. It could not transfer the land or the waters which 
have never been reduced to possession or subjection, it could 
never transfer the bodies and souls of the people. 

On another occasion, when speaking before a Democratic 
club in Boston, Mr. Collins took equally firm ground against 
Imperialism, or the establishment of a foreign colonial system. 
He combated the alluring invitation sent out by England to 
the United States to become a world power, to spread and 
extend its civilization abroad. Our civilization, he argued, 
is essentially American, and not adapted to other climes, 
races, or conditions of life. It differs materially from all 
other civilizations ; it is distinctive in its character and com- 
ports with the genius and aspirations of our people. Each 
country that is recognized as being a civilized country has 
a civilization of its own. "For example," he said, "the 
civilization of Great Britain is essentially British. The 
civilization of France is essentially French. And so on 
throughout all the races of men. God made us all different 
in temperament, different in characteristics and in aspira- 
tions as well as different in complexion, and God did not in- 
tend that men should be broken to a common mould. I 
was born in an island far away and under an alien flag, 
where a contest has been going on for seven hundred years, — 
Great Britain undertaking to make by war and scourge 
and famine the Irish people English, and they are as Irish 
to-day as they were when Strongbow landed. Each people, 
each race, each group of men made by God and allowed by 
Him to stand upon the earth's surface, has a right to the 
play of its own genius, a right to worship God in its own 
way, a right to have any civilization that suits it. And 
I do not believe we have any right to force our civiliza- 
tion upon Cuba or Puerto Rico or the Philippines any 
more than England has any right to force its civilization, its 
creed, or its code upon the Irish people or the people of the 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 153 

Transvaal, and therefore I say if we have made mistakes, 
let us resist the making of more of them." 

In June, 1904, while he was mayor of Boston, Mr. Collins 
assisted in the entertainment of a delegation of Filipino 
visitors, some fifty in number, who had been imported by Sec- 
retary Taft at the expense of the government as a sort of 
exhibit. The Roman generals were wont to display the cap- 
tive chiefs of conquered provinces as trophies of successful 
campaigns, and the Roman people were, on the occasions 
of these displays, granted a holiday to cheer the victors and 
jeer at the vanquished. All this made for the glory of Rome 
and for the popularity of the army. And so Mr. Taft 
selected, with great care, a delegation of Filipinos, almost 
every man of whom had, at some time, deserted or betrayed 
Aguinaldo, the leader of the revolution against Spain and the 
United States. These men were expected to be very cir- 
cumspect in their speech and demeanor. They were in- 
structed to observe the great evidences of wealth and culture 
which would be shown to them in all the large cities which 
they would visit from San Francisco to Boston. They were 
''personally conducted." Representatives of the army and 
of the executive departments travelled with them everywhere. 
Their official interpreter was a government ofiScer in Manila. 
Every safeguard that could be thrown about them was em- 
ployed to prevent any demonstration by them or to them 
of a popular sentiment in favor of their independence ; and 
on their side they were under strict injunction not to express 
any wish or desire in that direction or to hint that such a wish 
or desire was entertained by their brethren at home. 

Part of their entertainment in Boston took the form of a 
state dinner at a popular club. This was given by the 
governor of Massachusetts, the Hon. John L. Bates. A 
distinguished gathering of merchants, literary men, and ex- 
perts in economic science had been bidden to meet the little 
brown men, and to demonstrate by their presence and their 
speech the commercial and artistic growth of Boston. 
Among the guests was Mr. Collins, who had cultivated a 
distaste for evening functions, but who felt it to be his duty 
to be present out of compliment to the authorities of the 
United States and the Commonwealth. In his speech of 
welcome to the nation's guests or captives, the governor took 
occasion to assure them that the people of the United States 



154 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

were deeply interested in their welfare and solicitous about 
their political future. Differences of opinion, he said, 
existed as to the wisdom of the government's policy in the 
Philippines, but the opponents of that policy had not, as yet, 
offered any alternative. They merely opposed it without 
suggesting anything tangible or practical to take its place 
should it be abandoned. This little speech pleased the 
official entourage of the little band of brown men who were 
in their charge. Mr. Collins was invited to speak the wel- 
come of the city to the visiting delegates or wards of Mr. 
Taft. He began by quoting from the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, a document somewhat out of fashion in *'our new 
possessions," and he dwelt with suggestive emphasis upon 
the assertion in that great document of the right of all men 
to enjoy life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in conse- 
quence of the fact that they had been born free and equal. 
Then he declared with all the vigor he could throw into his 
statements, that the right of the Filipinos to self-government 
is as clear as the Declaration of Independence or the Sermon 
on the Mount. The Filipinos have the right to work out 
their own salvation, and if they are not oversuccessful in 
doing it, it is none of our business, any more than it is the 
concern of the Filipinos that we are not working out all our 
own problems in the most perfect way. The Filipino visitors 
were advised to carry back home with them the lessons of 
liberty put into efifect at Bunker Hill, and to say to their 
fellow-countrymen that a majority of the people of the United 
States are still true to the teachings of the fathers of Ameri- 
can freedom. The president of the Chamber of Commerce, 
the Hon. Henry M. Whitney, followed the line laid down 
by Mr. Collins, and expressed the hope — a hope which 
was shared by a large portion of the American people — that 
the day was not far distant, indeed that it was close at hand, 
when their people will be given their independence. These 
addresses gave courage to the Filipinos, and two or three of 
them who understood English broke loose from the ofhcial 
leash and pleaded for their country's emancipation. They 
asked this boon in the name of the great leaders of the Ameri- 
can Revolution and by the memories of Lexington, Concord, 
and Bunker Hill. Mr. Collins received hundreds of letters 
from all parts of the country commending him for his manly 
stand in behalf of principle. Nearly all the great newspapers 
of the land applauded his honesty and sincerity. 



CHAPTER XI 

Death and Burial— Services at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross 
— Extraordinary Crowd in and around the Church — Expres- 
sions OF Sorrow from all Quarters of the Country and from 
across the Sea — a Public Memorial Assured — Remarkable 
Response to Appeal for Funds — What Public Men thought of 
THE Late Mayor. 

ON September 14, 1905, a few minutes past nine 
o'clock, Mr. Collins died at the Hotel Homestead, 
Hot Springs, Virginia. He had been suffering from an 
acute bilious attack, which occurred soon after his arrival 
at the hotel. As he had been subject to such attacks at 
home for a number of years, he paid very little attention to 
this one, hoping to break it up by the usual methods 
which he employed under similar circumstances, but his 
condition grew worse hourly, and finally, before a full reali- 
zation of the danger had come to those who were with him, 
the dread summons came. There was no intimation either 
at his office in Boston or at his home in Brighton of any 
trouble or illness. When he left Boston the previous week 
he was in excellent spirits, and apparently in the best of 
health. He remained in town longer than he had antici- 
pated in order to review the parade of the workingmen on 
Labor Day. Although a heavy rain fell during the passage 
of the marching columns before him, he did not seem to feel 
any ill effects from it. Those who saw him that day and the 
next, before his departure for the South, agreed that they 
had not seen him looking so well within the last five years 
as he looked then. It was my custom, as his secretary, dur- 
ing his absence to keep him informed on all subjects of either 
official or private interest. All contracts which needed 
the signature of the mayor were regularly forwarded to him 
for his consideration and examination. But few papers 
had been sent to him during the first week of his absence,^ as 
there was nothing of an urgent nature to make such action 

155 



iS6 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

necessary, and it was the purpose of the office to interfere 
as little as possible with his rest in his favorite resort. 

I had written him two letters explaining certain matters 
which had been somewhat in abeyance before he left, but 
had received no reply, and as no reply was needed no notice 
was taken of the omission. One letter which I sent to him 
for his information was returned by his son with a note of 
explanation, but no reference was made to his father's ill- 
ness. I had been in communication with the members of 
the family at home, and they had no news and no information 
respecting his condition ; consequently they were under the 
impression, as I was, that he was enjoying his outing as he 
always did in Virginia. 

Imagine the horror and surprise which inVaded the office 
a few minutes after twelve o'clock on September 14 when a 
telegram from his son Paul was handed in. Opening it 
leisurely I read as follows : ''Father died this morning. Will 
wire further particulars later." It was difficult to believe 
that the awful news was true. There was not the slightest 
warning in advance to prepare one for the terrible blow. I 
had not even known that he was ill. There was a tempta- 
tion for the moment to try and verify the contents of the 
despatch, to see if some hoax had not been perpetrated, but 
there stood the fact that the despatch was dated at Hot 
Springs, Virginia, and was signed by the mayor's son. No per- 
son could be imagined who was base enough to perpetrate 
such a hoax. For as much as a quarter of an hour no one 
was informed of the contents of the telegram. There must 
be time to recover from the blow, and time to think. All 
doubts as to the genuineness of the information was cleared 
up in a few moments by a telephone message from his family 
announcing that they had received the gloomy intelligence. 
His brother-in-law, Mr. John J. Collins, and Mr. James 
Donovan, the superintendent of streets, two of his closest 
political and personal friends, were called at once into con- 
ference, for the purpose of forming a plan for immediate 
action, which was eminently necessary. It was soon agreed 
that Mr. Collins should go to Washington, meet the funeral 
train there, and help to convey the body to its home in the 
city. 

As soon as this step was decided upon the representatives 
of the press were invited into the mayor's office, and the tele- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 157 

gram was shown to them. Immediately the wildest excite- 
ment, almost a panic, pervaded the entire building. Heads 
of departments and clerks rushed out of their offices, tum- 
bling over each other in their eagerness to verify the sad 
news, hoping against hope that it was not true. But the 
lowering of the flag on the staff on City Hall and the tolling 
of the bells soon settled all doubts on the matter, and the 
newspaper bulletins spread the news through the commu- 
nity. Crowds assembled in spots along Newspaper Row 
and studied the black letters which were put out upon the 
boards, waiting anxiously for some details. Telegraph wires 
were busy at once in transmitting the information to all 
parts of the country, and inside of two hours more than 
fifty telegrams and notes of condolence arrived at the office. 
The news spread rapidly through the city, filling counting 
rooms of bankers and merchants and the offices of lawyers 
with dismay and sorrow. 

By the death of the mayor the duties and responsibilities 
of the office devolved upon the chairman of the Board of 
Aldermen under the statute. That position was held by 
Alderman Daniel A. Whelton, and as soon as the informa- 
tion reached him he repaired to the office and sent out the 
following notice to the city council : — 

City of Boston, Office of the Mayor, 
September 14, 1905. 

To THE Members of the City Council: You are hereby re- 
quested to meet in your respective chambers in the City Hall, Boston, 
on Friday, September 15, at 12 o'clock noon, for the purpose of taking 
appropriate action on the death of Mayor Patrick A. Collins, which 
occurred this forenoon, and of expressing the sorrow felt by the citizens 
of Boston at the loss sustained through his death. 

Yours very respectfully, 
(signed) Daniel A. Whelton, 

Acting Mayor. 

He then ordered the bells upon all public buildings 
throughout the city to be tolled from 5 to 5.30 o'clock, and 
gave instructions to all departments to display emblems of 
mourning for thirty days. 

The Common Council held its regular meeting on that 
evening, and as soon as the members assembled, a motion to 
adjourn as a tribute of respect to the memory of the late 
Mayor Collins was made and unanimously carried. 



158 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Pursuant to the call of Mayor Whelton both branches of 
the city council met in their respective chambers at noon 
on Friday. To each branch this message was delivered : — 

City of Boston, Office of the Mayor, 
September 15, 1905. 

To the City Council: It is my painful though manifest duty to 
of&cially communicate to you the deplorable fact that the mayor of 
Boston, the Hon. Patrick A. CoUins, is dead. Far from this city, 
whose afifairs he directed with exalted wisdom and admirable grace, he 
has been quickly summoned to the kingdom of his God. A type of 
self-made man, than whom none was higher, has closed his earthly exile, 
and upon a common altar the entire people of our bereaved city kneel, 
breathing to heaven a fervent prayer that the immortal soul of Patrick A. 
ColUns may rest in peace. Nearly all the major years of his life were 
dedicated to public service at home and abroad, and the record that 
survives glitters with brilliant achievement in a setting of stainless and 
rugged character. His illustrious career fitly attests the possibiHties of 
worldly success without sacrifice of honor or manUness in our country of 
liberty, equahty, and opportunity. It is unnecessary for me to suggest 
any specific action on your part, as I am satisfied that the proprieties 
of the sad occasion will be fully met. 

Respectfully yours, 
(signed) Daniel A. Whelton, 

Acting Mayor. 

Immediately after the reading of the message Alderman 
Frederick E. Bolton offered the following resolutions : — 

Resolved, That the city council have learned with deep sorrow of 
the sudden death of Mayor Patrick A. CoUins, a sorrow felt keenly by 
all who knew him in pubUc and private life. 

The example he set of noble manhood and high achievement may 
well be emulated by the youth of our country. Starting as a poor boy 
in an alien land, undergoing severe hardships in order to obtain the 
education he desired, he became, by his indomitable will and force of 
character, a commanding figure in national, state, and city afi'airs. A 
man of unswerving honesty, of high ability, of absolute fearlessness, 
sincerity, and directness, whose motives and actions throughout a long 
and useful career were never even questioned, his life will long remain r 
an inspiration to his fellow-citizens. His life and his achievements are 
a striking illustration of what may be accomplished in our country by 
courage and determination in the face of apparently overwhelming 
odds. 

Resolved, That we tender our respectful sympathy to the family 
of the deceased, joining with them in their sorrow. 

Speaking to these resolutions a majority of the members 
of the board delivered highly eulogistic addresses on the 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 159 

character and achievements of the late mayor. Even those 
who had been at odds with him politically and in their offi- 
cial relation testified to his honesty, sincerity, and fidelity to 
every trust. An order was immediately passed that all the 
municipal offices should be closed on the day of the funeral, 
and that the City Hall and all public buildings should be 
appropriately draped in black for thirty days. 

Meanwhile, arrangements were in progress for the funeral, 
which was scheduled to take place on Monday, September 
18. After some consultation it was decided that the services 
should be held at the Cathedral of the Holy Cross on Wash- 
ington Street, it being the largest Catholic church edifice in 
the city. His Grace, the Archbishop, intimated a desire 
to participate in the exercises, as did also his auxiliary, 
Rt. Rev. Bishop Brady. The honorary pall-bearers were 
selected by the family in consultation with some of the 
mayor's close friends. The following is a list of those who 
acted : — 

Hon. William L. Douglas, governor of the Common- 
wealth. 

Hon. Richard Olney, Secretary of State in Mr. Cleve- 
land's Cabinet. 

Hon. Daniel A. Whelton, mayor of the city. 

Former mayors of Boston : Samuel A. Green, Thomas 
N. Hart, Nathan Matthews, Edwin U. Curtis, Josiah Quincy. 

Hon. Augustine J. Daly, mayor of Cambridge. 

Hon. Winthrop Murray Crane, United States senator. 

William H. K. Redmond, M.P., representing the United 
Irish League and the Irish Party. 

Hon. James Donovan, superintendent of streets. 

Colonel William A. Gaston. 

General Charles H. Taylor, editor and proprietor of the 
Boston Globe. 

Major Henry L. Higginson, of the firm of Lee, Higgin- 
son & Company, bankers. 

Hon. William T. A. Fitzgerald, chairman of the Demo- 
cratic City Committee. 

Mr. Charles E. Stratton, chairman of Board of Park 
Commissioners. 

Hon. John R. Thayer, member of Congress from Wor- 
cester. 



i6o LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Thomas J. Gargan. 

Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, 

John M. Graham. 

Lieutenant John A. Tobin, U.S.N., retired. 

E. B. Bartlett, a business associate of the late Mayor 
ColHns. 

Jerome Jones, former president of the Chamber of Com- 
merce. 

A. Shuman, a member of the Chamber of Commerce. 

Patrick F. Griffin of New York. 

John F. Noonan, an old friend of the mayor, in South 
Boston. 

Arthur W. Dolan, president of the Common Council. 

M. P. Curran, the mayor's secretary. 

Those who bore the casket from the house and into the 
church and out again were: — 

Hon. John B. Martin, commissioner of Penal Institutions. 

Hon. Patrick J. Kennedy, wire commissioner. 

George U. Crocker, Esq., city treasurer. 

Edmund A. Macdonald, Esq., city collector. 

J. Alfred Mitchell, Esq., city auditor. 

James Mulcahy, Esq., building commissioner. 

Benjamin W. Wells, Esq., fire commissioner. 

John M. Minton, Esq., chairman of the Board of Election 
Commissioners. 

The funeral services took place at ten o'clock at the cathe- 
dral. A solemn high mass of requiem was celebrated, the 
Rev. Nicholas R. Walsh, rector of the cathedral, being cele- 
brant. More than fifty clergymen had seats within the 
sanctuary rail, and the venerable Archbishop was present 
in his full pontifical robes, giving the benediction at the close 
of the services. There was no eulogy, owing to the fact that 
Mr. Collins never approved of addresses of any kind at a 
church funeral. 

Fully one hundred thousand people were in the streets 
on that day. All the avenues of travel in the vicinity of the 
cathedral were blocked for over an hour by a solid mass of 
people who could not get admission to the church, but who 
gave evidence of their respect and veneration for the dead 
chief magistrate by their presence out doors. Along the line 
followed by the funeral cortege, from the cathedral to Holy- 



THE FUNERAL — CASKET LEAVING THE CATHEDRAL OF 
. THE HOLY CROSS 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS i6i 

hood Cemetery in Brookline, crowds stood on the sidewalks, 
while others peered from windows with sad expressions on 
their countenances and other evidences of their sympathy for 
the loss which had been sustained by the bereaved family 
and the bereaved city. 

The cemetery grounds were packed for two hours prior 
to the arrival of the funeral procession by a crowd of inter- 
ested persons who could not get into the cathedral. When 
those who attended the funeral arrived, it was difficult to get 
a passage through to the grave, so vast was the throng. 

It was a bright, sunny day, just such a day as he loved. 
There was not a cloud in the sky, and there was scarcely 
enough breeze to shake the trees and shrubs in the 
streets and avenues of the city of the dead. On an elevated 
spot, near a clump of trees and a grand, majestic boulder, 
they had dug a grave. To this all that was mortal of Pat- 
rick A. Collins was borne. And they laid him away beneath 
the turf, while thousands joined the mourners in sob and 
prayer. Near by was the grave of his mother, and just 
across a narrow street was the tomb of his dear friend, John 
Boyle O'Reilly. In life, they were close friends and com- 
panions; in death, they are not separated. 

From out of the thousands of letters and telegrams that 
poured into the mayor's office and into the home of Mr. 
Collins in Brighton, a few are selected for publication here. 
They came from representative men of all parties, creeds, 
and conditions; they expressed the common grief of the 
people and gave a slight indication of the universal esteem 
in which he was held, and of the popular respect for his 
high character and marvellous achievements. 

Grover Cleveland 

I am much distressed to hear of the death of Mayor Collins. 
His death will cause sadness in the hearts of many who have not 
had personally as intimate associations with him as were mine. 
In public life he was strictly honest and sincerely devoted to the 
responsibilities which office-holding involves. He was a man of 
great ability, and had the reward of high statesmanship within his 
reach, after so well and so long a time discharging duties pertain- 
ing to the executive head of the city of his home. He was an 
excellent mayor because he appreciated what he owed to his 
fellow- cidzens, and this conscientious appreciation of official 



i62 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

responsibilities was the key to his valuable services and useful 
achievements. 

The Irish Parliamentary Party 

Dublin, September 15, 1905. 

In the name of the Irish party and of the National Directorate 
of the United Irish League, we tender the municipahty of Boston 
the expression of our sincere condolence at the loss which the city 
has sustained by the death of your distinguished mayor. We 
tender to the American people our profound regret at the death 
of a distinguished citizen and great pubhc leader, and we desire 
to place on record in common with the Irish race at home and 
abroad that we feel the deep blow that has been struck at all Irish 
interests in America by the death of one who has ever been a pow- 
erful friend of Ireland in every time of stress and danger. 

Pray convey to his family the expression of our respectful con- 
dolence. 

— (Signed) John Redmond 
John Dillon 
Joseph Devlin. 

Henry Watterson 

I am too deeply grieved by the death of my friend to undertake 
a characterization or eulogy. During thirty years he was as a 
brother to me. Hardly less in our Irish than in our American 
sympathies we were drawn to one another in early manhood. 
Our last hours together were passed in the beautiful and inviting 
mountains of Virginia, where he has seen the last of earth. To 
his dear ones at home I have sent the homage of profound sym- 
pathy and sorrow. Do me the favor to convey this to the good 
people of Boston, whom he loved so well and served so faithfully. 

Richard Olney, Formerly Secretary of State 

In Mayor Collins 's death a wide circle of personal and political 
friends met with a severe bereavement, and Massachusetts, and 
Boston in particular, suffered the loss of a most useful and patriotic 
citizen. As a representative in Congress, his abihty, probity, and 
fidehty to duty made his influence second to that of no other mem- 
ber of the national legislature, and laid the Commonwealth under 
lasting obUgations. Many good and able men have filled the office 
of mayor of Boston, but none have surpassed Mayor Collins in the 
grace, dignity, and unswerving regard for the public welfare with 
which he has performed its functions. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 163 

Of foreign birth, his sympathy for his native land was ardent, 
and he never failed to promote all reasonable and proper efforts 
for the betterment of its conditions. But it may be said of him at 
the same time that he was unfaltering in his love of and belief in 
his adopted country, and first, last, and always, he was a true 
American citizen. 

Dr. Samuel A. Green, Former Mayor of Boston 

Mayor Colhns's death is a great loss to the city. He has made 
a most excellent official. I can appreciate some of the difficulties 
he has had to contend with in carrying out his intentions, but he 
had done good work, and I am shocked and grieved to hear of his 
death. 

Colonel John F. Finnerty, President United Irish League 

OF America 

The death of Patrick A. Collins is a tremendous loss to the 
country. To myself, honored with his friendship for many years, 
it comes as a great shock and a personal loss. 

The fame of Patrick A. Collins, citizen and patriot, is secure. 
The example afforded by his life may well be followed by the youth 
of our land. I have known him since 1866. I was his friend then, 
and valued the relationship highly. All his life he was faithful 
to Ireland, and his fondest dream was of the mother country free 
and independent. 

I served with Mr. Collins in the forty- eighth Congress ; he was a 
great favorite there. His brilliancy, his wit, and his keen logic made 
him a noted speaker, and when he spoke the House was always 
crowded. 

Governor Douglas 

I was shocked to hear of the sudden death of Mayor P. A. 
ColUns. He had been my friend for nearly a quarter of a century, 
and I always found him to be a man imbued with the best motives. 
He was far-sighted, deliberate, and just, and a friend whose counsel 
was courted on all important matters. By his death the state 
loses an honored citizen, the city of Boston an able chief executive, 
and his friends a comrade whose memory will ever be an inspiration. 

Postmaster George A. Hibbard 

The death of Mayor Collins comes as a shock to the community, 
although it had been known that he was not a very strong man. 
Reports, however, had been of an encouraging nature of late. 



i64 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

I think one of the strongest characteristics of Mayor Collins 
that appealed to me was his absolute integrity. He had proved 
by his career what is open to all who are compelled to work, to 
attain prominence through their own efforts. His death is a dis- 
tinct loss to the city, and one that I deeply regret. 

Colonel William A. Gaston 

In the death of Mayor ColUns the city of Boston has sustained 
a distinct loss. His life has been distinguished in many and varied 
lines. He was known throughout the world as very few men are 
known. He has rendered great and valuable services to his fellow- 
citizens of this city, state, and nation. His place will not be easily 
filled, if it is filled at all. His character was above reproach. Per- 
sonally, I feel the loss of a dear friend. 

Very Rev. William Byrne, D.D., V.G. 

I am exceedingly sorry to hear of the death of Mayor Collins. 
It is a great shock to me, and more pathetic still because he died 
so far away from home. I regard his death as a great loss to the city 
of Boston. He was undoubtedly a very successful administrator 
of city affairs, and he was, in my opinion, and I think in the opinion 
of all who had any dealings with him, perfectly honest and disin- 
terested, and whatever he did he did under a conscientious apprecia- 
tion of duty. 

Thomas W. Lawson, the Financier 

The Hon. Patrick A. Colhns to the world was an Irishman, 
a gentleman and a scholar ; to the high and mighty, a man with a 
lion's heart; to the poor and lowly, a man with a woman's soul; 
to us who knew him, he was Pat CoUins. By his untimely taking 
off the world is sensibly the poorer, for his part ever was to loose 
the bonds of the fettered and brighten the sky of the hopeless. 
He enriched life by his generosity to his fellow-men, and to all his 
nobiUty was an inspiration. Surely the sunbeams will linger lov- 
ingly about the places where his presence was, and the dewdrops, 
ghstening like tears amid the grass blades, will testify to the grief 
of the big and httle children of nature at his passing. If the gates 
are not ajar when Pat Collins reaches St. Peter's realm, it will 
surely be because they have been taken off their hinges for his 
coming. 

Senator Cockrell of Missouri 

I have known Mr. Colhns for years, and classed him as an able 
and high-minded citizen. I was extremely fond of him in Congress ; 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 165 

and in politics he was always loyal to his party, and was one of the 
best advisers for the great Democratic party. I am positive that 
were our old colleagues here to voice their sentiments, they would 
agree with me when I state that he was one of the finest of men. 

Former Mayor Matthews 

Massachusetts has lost her foremost citizen, and I feel that I 
have lost my best friend. 

David Bennett Hill 

Your city has lost a worthy citizen and an able official. He 
served his country and his party well. I deeply lament his death. 

The Rev. Herbert S. Johnson 

While we are thinking of Mayor Collins as the Irish-American 
and the able politician, we should not fail to consider an important 
sphere of his influence which might easily escape observation. 
The religious and humanitarian forces of the city have lost an able 
ally through his death. They will perhaps have good reason in 
the future to feel much more than at present the weight of the loss. 

To my personal knowledge Boston is a cleaner city morally 
to-day than it would have been had he not been mayor. Many 
of our young men and women are happier and purer and more 
successful in business because of him. Many a far-away New 
England home is indebted to the man who shielded its sons and 
daughters, subjected to the dangerous perils of metropohtan hfe. 

The friendship of the churches of Boston, irrespective of de- 
nomination or creed or race, which Mr. Collins undoubtedly 
possessed, was due in considerable measure to his veto of Hcenses 
for proposed amusement places dangerous to morality ; also to his 
actual removal from existence of some well-known dance halls, 
which were crowded with young people and which were conducted 
in such a manner as to demonstrate their managers to be able 
lieutenants of the devil. 

Personally, I feel great regret that the mayor has gone, for I am 
fearful that the protection of the young in the future will be more 
difficult than ever. 

Mayor Colhns stood for a principle which must be considered 
in the definition of modern sainthood. He believed in and prac- 
tised the mihtancy of righteousness. With high ideals of rehgion 
and patriotism, he was a practical politician and man of affairs 
for a whole generation. He was an ideahst in the thick of the 
fight. He was bold, aggressive, and loyal in contact with all kinds 
of everyday men, some of them grafters and thieves and time- 



i66 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

servers. Did he not thereby soil his hands ? No doubt — but 
not his honor. 

His memory will always remind us that nearly all the useful 
people in the world are accustomed to soiling their hands continu- 
ally. The agriculturist soils his hands and gives us wheat ; the car- 
penter soils his hands and gives us a house ; the nurse in the hos- 
pital soils her hands and gives to the injured his life; the city 
scavenger soils his hands and frees the city from disease. 

I hope that a monument will be erected to the mayor's memory, 
for it will teach the succeeding generations a lesson which goodness 
must learn if it would be anything more than a pleasant jest to 
the profligate, viz., that righteousness needs not only a rosary, but 
also a hickory stick ; that goodness should go up to the temple 
with the worshipper, and also down to the wigwam with the ward 
heelers; that the Christian should keep one eye fixed on heaven 
and the other glued tight to the ballot box ; that a saint with a 
white robe is beautiful in the sight of men, but that a saint with a 
scrubbing broom is beautiful in the sight of God. 

I am sorry that more deacons and elders are not in the politics 
of Boston. If this nation is to be saved, those to do it are the men 
and women in our churches. If we do not do it, it is because we 
are afraid. 

The example of Mayor CoUins has done more than the sermons 
of many preachers to impress upon the minds of our people the 
great rehgious truth of the eflScacy of self-efifacement in service to 
promote the equilibrium of society. 

By his personal incorruptibility in his high office he has saved 
Boston measurably from the convulsions of the era of graft, which 
has been the curse of Philadelphia, New York, MinneapoHs, St. 
Louis, and many other American cities. 

The very moderate fortune which he has left behind him is an 
eloquent testimonial of the great social fact that civic peace and 
prosperity must be associated with self-denial and self-consecra- 
tion to the good of the whole body of citizens, on the part of those 
who have been elected to the responsibilities and honors of govern- 
ment, and to the opportunities of selfish advancement that are 
inseparably associated with it. 

The working people and the churches are blessed in such a man 
as Patrick A. Collins. It is the great glory of Boston that we have 
had an incorruptible mayor, and I thank God for him. 

Sir Thomas Lipton Bart. 

When the executive committee having charge of the CoUins 
memorial had nearly completed the work of receiving and account- 
ing for the subscriptions that had come to the treasurer in response 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 167 

to the public notice given on September 27, Mr. A. G. McVey, 
the yachting editor of the Boston Herald, received a cable message 
from his friend Sir Thomas Lipton, the famous yachtsman, in- 
timating his desire to contribute to the fund. A letter bearing date 
October 14 was also received in which Sir Thomas said: "I con- 
firm cabling you that it would give me very great pleasure if I were 
allowed to contribute my mite toward the memorial to the late 
Mayor Collins, and I have also authorized you in that cablegram 
to include my name in the list of subscribers for $250. As you 
know, Mayor Collins was a man I respected, esteemed, and admired 
very much, and I would regard it as a very high privilege to be 
allowed to join in the memorial mentioned. On hearing from 
you as to its acceptance, I will be glad to arrange for remittance 
to be sent. 

"lam 
"Yours faithfully, 
"(signed) Thomas J. Lipton." 

Jerome Jones, a Leading Boston Merchant 

Mayor Collins's career has been a distinguished one. He came 
up from the humblest origin and acquired an education under 
difficulties, but in every position in which he has been placed, his 
integrity has never been questioned. His honesty and ability 
have been universally acknowledged. At this time his loss will be 
felt more than ever, as those who are likely to fill his place and who 
can satisfy the taxpayer and believer in good government do not 
yet appear. 

A. Shuman, Merchant and Banker 

I am profoundly shocked and grieved at the sudden death of 
Mayor Collins. It does not seem possible that a man of his ap- 
parent strength and energetic appearance, as I saw him two weeks 
ago, should be taken away suddenly in the very prime of his powers. 
My personal relation with him for more than thirty years has been 
both intimate and friendly, and my official relations with him have 
convinced me of his ability, honesty, and high ideals of civic life. 
Mayor Collins was the embodiment of old-fashioned honesty in 
public office. He was a grand representative of his district as 
a member of Congress, as all his colleagues who served with him 
can testify. He was an intelligent and excellent representative 
of the national government as Consul-general at London for four 
years, and he has served his fellow-citizens as mayor of this city 
with fidelity and integrity as well as rare ability, not exceeded by 
any of his distinguished predecessors. Honest, fearless, courageous 
to do right, he never failed at the critical moment to serve the people 



i68 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

from the abstract point of justice. Of him it may be said bojins 
et fidelis. He will be mourned not only by his friends and the 
citizens of Boston, but by the nation at large. 

Charles S. Hamlin, Formerly Assistant Secretary of the 

Treasury 

I am inexpressibly shocked at the sad news of Mayor Collins's 
death. We have been devoted friends for many years. He was 
a man of the highest character and attainments, and his taking 
away will be a serious loss to the community. 

Ex-Senator William F. Vilas of Wisconsin 

The news of the death of Mr. ColUns is deeply painful. Closely 
cooperating with him for some years in public labor, I found what 
Mayor Collins's distinguished career always illustrated, that his 
unusual intellectual force, eloquent speech, and capacity for affairs 
were rendered doubly useful by sound judgment, unbending 
civic righteousness, and genuine love of fellow-men. He was ever 
sure of the right with his power and purity of purpose. His loss 
is affecting and his countrymen will long mourn, but his memory 
should be a treasure to Massachusetts. 

William H. Redmond, M.P. 

The grief which fills my heart almost overwhelms me. Patrick 
A. Collins had welcomed me to Boston more than twenty years ago. 
He was my close, my intimate, and my personal friend. And as 
for his attitude toward the cause of Ireland, I can only say that I 
well remember twenty-five years ago, when Charles Stewart Par- 
nell came back to Ireland from his campaign here, he told the Irish 
people that one of the truest friends of Ireland in the States was 
Patrick A. CoUins of Boston. 

When I say that the news of his death will cause grief in Ireland, 
I do not speak for the Irish members of ParUament alone, I speak 
for the people in the cabin homes throughout the country. I 
know full well that in the north and south and the east and the 
west there is mourning in the hearts of the people, and there is 
crape on their arms because Patrick A. Collins is dead. 

Hon. John D. Long, Former Governor and Secretary of 

THE Navy 

I am much shocked at the news, and very sorry. I wish to ex- 
press my very high personal regard for him. He was a most win- 
ning and interesting personality. I must also express apprecia- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 169 

tion of his great public services and of the very high standard he 
had before him as mayor of the city. 

MoNSiGNOR Dennis O'Callaghan 

I knew Mayor CoUins from his early manhood. He lived close 
to my house during that time, and I saw even then the excellence 
of his character and the honesty of purpose which I doubted not 
would bring him to eminence in future days. He was always up- 
right, a tender lover of his mother, affectionate and kind and 
gentle at all times, and I ever felt toward him the sentiments and 
feelings of a brother. I was not surprised that he distinguished 
himself in after life. In the discharge of every pubhc duty he 
filled the hearts and minds of the citizens of Boston with a due 
appreciation of his work, honesty, and high purpose. I am pro- 
foundly grieved to hear of his death. 

Hon. Josiah Quincy, Formerly Mayor of Boston 

I am greatly shocked at the news of the sudden death of Mayor 
Collins. We had been not only poUtical but personal friends 
for many years, and his unexpected passing away brings me a 
sense of great loss. He was a man of remarkable personality and 
powers, not only standing at the head of the citizens of Irish blood, 
but having a high position among representative Americans. 
His service for nearly four years in the office of mayor of Boston, 
a service which at the time of his death seemed altogether likely 
to be continued for another term, did not constitute his chief claim 
to pubUc distinction, but was only the fit rounding out of a hfe 
of great and varied public activities and of wide influence for good. 

The charm of his personality and of his wit will long abide in 
the hearts of his friends, and while we mourn his loss I cannot 
count it a misfortune for himself that he has passed away at the 
zenith of his career and with his powers unimpaired. 

George B. McClellan, Mayor of New York 

My acquaintance with Patrick A. Collins extended over a period 
of years, and my esteem for his noble qualities and my affection 
for his manly nature increased with every meeting, an experience 
shared by all who knew him intimately. I feel that the city of 
Boston has lost an honest and fearless executive, the Democracy 
one who distinguished its highest councils, the nation one of its 
first citizens. Personally, I sorrow for the loss of a strong friend. 

Senator Henry Cabot Lodge 

I was very much surprised and greatly shocked and grieved to 
hear of the death of Mr. Collins. I knew him for many years, 



xyo LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

and was in the House with him. I had the highest regard for him, 
and we were the best of friends. He was a very able man, and his 
death is a great public loss. 

Ex-Governor John L. Bates 

The death of Mayor Collins removes one of the rarest of per- 
sonalities in our city, the leader of the Irish race and at the same 
time an intense American. For years I have had most pleasant 
relations with him, both personally and officially, and I deeply 
regret his death. He always impressed me as being a warm- 
hearted, impulsive, and generous man, and yet one who was con- 
servative in his action and most conscientious in the discharge of 
his pubUc duties. He will be much missed in this country, which 
he served so creditably abroad and so faithfully at home. 

Former Mayor T. N. Hart 

I have known Mr. Collins for full forty years, and during that 
time he has been my personal friend. He was a first-rate citizen, 
and one that meant to do right in all he undertook. 

Lucius Tuttle, President Boston & Maine Railroad 

I regard Mayor Collins 's death as a great calamity. He was one 
of the most useful office-holders we ever had in this city. I say 
this as a RepubUcan and not as a Democrat. His death is a great 
loss to all citizens of all shades of poUtical opinion. 

Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy 

Mayor CoUins was a most estimable man. Although I did not 
know him intimately, I had the pleasure of meeting him on a number 
of occasions, and the high esteem in which Boston held him was 
assuredly well-merited. I deeply sympathize with Boston in her 
loss. 

Some Protestant Ministers 

Dr. Francis E. Clark, President of the International Society 
of Christian Endeavor, said : "Mayor Colhns has given us a very 
good administration. I esteemed him as an upright, worthy man, 
one of the best specimens of those who adopt America as their 
country, and rise to high office." 

Dr. P. S. Henson, pastor of Tremont Temple, said : "I did not 
know Mayor Collins personally, but had a high regard for him as 
a model mayor, and I regret his death. I think he tried to do his 
duty faithfully, and was pubHc-spirited, fearless, and honest." 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 171 

Dr. George L. Perrin, pastor of People's Universalist Church, 
Brookhne, said: "I knew him a little, but not at all intimately, 
and I held him in high esteem as a thoroughly honest man. He 
was a man whom I greatly respected, and although he was a Demo- 
crat, he was not an extreme partisan. He had the courage of his 
convictions, and his death is a great loss to the city and to the 
community." 

Dr. W. T. McElveen, pastor of the Shawmut Congregational 
Church, said: "He was a good man, and I regret this sudden de- 
parture of one who was doing such splendid service to the city. 
I met him a few times and found him charming in conversation, 
and ready to do anything required that was at all reasonable, and 
if he disagreed he would give his reasons frankly. He seemed a 
whole-souled sort of man." 

Rev. E. A. Horton said: "A man of courage and conviction, 
larger than his party and his creed. His career is a source of in- 
spiration to youth, for he rose from humble, discouraging begin- 
nings. He was proud of his American life, and worthily wore the 
honors of office here and in England. His party has lost one of 
its most distinguished leaders." 



CHAPTER XII 

Expressions of Commendation by the Press of the United States 
AND Ireland — An Unbroken Stream of Good Opinion and Praise 
FOR THE Superb Moral and Intellectual Qualities of the 
Deceased Mayor. 

HARDLY a single paper of any prominence in any 
centre of population from Aroostook to the Golden 
Gate refrained from giving an expression of its 
views respecting the career and character of Mr. Collins. 
A few of these comments by papers in widely separated 
sections of the country are selected almost at random, 
simply to show the universality of the respect in which he 
was held even in communities which he never visited and 
with which he was wholly unrelated. If lack of space 
did not prohibit, over three hundred additional selections 
might be made for publication. Enough will be [found in 
succeeding pages to show how intimate was the popular 
knowledge of his life history and what a far-reaching influ- 
ence his remarkable career may eventually exert upon the 
fortunes of the growing generation. In these days of sen- 
sational disclosures affecting the reputations of public offi- 
cials, it is refreshing to reflect that here was one man who 
rose from the lowest to the very highest plane in the service 
of the people without a smirch or stain upon his character 
and without even the whisper of scandal. Such a life must 
be productive of lasting benefit to the people. A perusal 
of the excerpts which follow will not fail to accentuate the 
value and meaning of these reflections. 

Boston Globe 

Patrick Andrew Collins was the finished product of American 
institutions, and his career illustrates the boast of America: "The 
republic is opportunity." He died the honored chief magistrate 
of the proud and wealthy city which he entered as a poor, father- 
less boy. An Irish Catholic immigrant, his death is mourned 

172 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 173 

without regard to race or sect or nativity by all the people in the 
community, where once, in an hour of evil passion, he was hunted 
and mobbed and beaten. He became the friend and equal of 
the foremost men of the land, to which he had come an obscure 
stranger, a leader in Congress, the president of a national convention, 
the chief consular officer of the United States, and, if he had con- 
sented, would have become a member of the Cabinet of the Presi- 
dent. 

From a youth of privation and toil he won his own way to a 
liberal culture, which his rare gift of oratory enabled him to express 
with such grace and power as to earn for him while yet a young 
man a national reputation. A manual laborer until he was twenty- 
three years of age, he gained a place of high distinction in the pro- 
fession of the law. In his Ufe and achievements the true mission 
and meaning of the American nation were reahzed and exemplified. 

Mr. Collins's success, however, is not to be measured alone by 
place and power. He gained those, but he gained far more, — 
he gained the inner spirit of his adopted country. 

As the first president of the Irish Land League, in the great 
movement under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, his 
name is secure in the new and brighter history of Ireland. Cher- 
ishing a loyal devotion to his native land and arduously serving 
and championing her cause, he yet became an embodiment of Ameri- 
can ideals, a true interpreter of the traditions, and a true represen- 
tative of the principles of our nationality. 

He rose above all Hnes of race or birth or religion. The ugly 
know-nothingism which confronted him in his boyhood was not 
suffered to embitter his manhood. On the contrary, it seemed 
to make him more resolute than most men against harboring such 
unhappy prejudices. . . . 

As mayor of Boston it is within bounds to say that Mr. Collins 
exalted an office which has been filled by not a few able and dis- 
tinguished man. In a time when many despair of municipal 
government in America, and all civic evils are often charged to 
immigration, this immigrant mayor lifted the mayoralty of Boston 
Uterally above all pubUc criticism. Amid the various passing 
personal disappointments which he necessarily must have occa- 
sioned in his unswerving pursuit of the principles which he laid 
down for his guidance, his devotion to the interests of the city never 
has deen questioned in any quarter. 

He watched his conscience and not the gallery, and his ear, 
never to the ground, Ustened only to the still small voice within 
himself. He had a Jeffersonian trust in the collective wisdom of 
the people, and therefore was not given to flattering their vanity. 
That his faith was justified his reelection by the largest majority 
ever cast for a mayor by the Boston electorate abundantly attests. 



174 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Boston Herald 

Mr. Collins was a remarkable man. Indeed, his life affords a 
striking illustration of the extent to which force of character de- 
termines a man's career, and permits him to override serious bar- 
riers built up by adverse environments. In his early life Mr. 
Collins had no advantages which were not the common property 
of many thousands of boys where the family was supported by the 
modest daily wages of the head of the household. That he util- 
ized every opportunity offered him for reading and studying, 
even when at a relatively early age in life, while he was working at 
the trade to which he had been placed, was due to that innate 
counsel, that belief in himself and confidence in his future, which 
after years were to abundantly justify. 

Certain excellences which Mr. Collins possessed speedily made 
themselves known. In the first place he was instinctively honest. 
In the complication of municipal poHtics, as they are developed 
in our greater American cities, it often happens that men of assumed 
good moral principles tolerate abuses or wink at corruption, be- 
cause they seem to be parts of the recognized order of things. Mr. 
Collins did not need to have his conscience stimulated, and if as 
chief magistrate of Boston he did not in all cases act the part of 
the energetic and courageous reformer of public abuse, the failure 
was not so much due to expediency as to the tendency to procras- 
tinate, which was seemingly the outcome of his impaired physical 
strength. 

It was the thorough honesty of the man that counted in the 
friendship and confidence of his fellow-men of all social grades 
wherever he went, but on this foundation of sterling worth was 
built a highly attractive personality. His wit, which was of the 
keenest, he brought with him in double-distilled form from his 
native land. His intelhgence represented great original ability, 
developed and trained by the careful study of what was best in 
modern literature. Then there was besides a kindly good fellow- 
ship which easily adjusted itself to all social conditions, and made 
its possessor the recognized centre of almost every gathering of 
which he was a member. 

Boston Post 

News of the sudden death of Hon. Patrick A. Collins, 
mayor of Boston, comes as a distinct and painful shock to this 
community, and will be received widely with sincere regret. Here 
in the city where Mr. ColUns passed his life from early childhood 
the feeling of loss is peculiarly acute, and in the wider field of the 
nation, and, indeed, on the other side of the Atlantic, it will be 
felt that a force for the advancement of humanity has been extin- 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 175 

guished, for Mr. Collins was not only the most prominent Irish- 
American in the United States, but a leader recognized abroad as 
well. It is not because of his race, however, that Mr. Collins 
reached distinction. He was first and foremost an American 
citizen, and as such he won the high place and the warm regard 
in which he has been held, and in which his memory will be cher- 
ished. He was conspicuously and essentially an American prod- 
uct, educated in our schools, trained in our methods, and encour- 
aged in his worthy ambitions by the opportunities which our 
institutions oflfer to earnest youth and honest endeavor. 

Boston American 

Boston to-day pays tribute to the memory of a man in whom 
she expressed her faith by giving to him the largest vote a mayor- 
alty candidate here, either RepubHcan or Democrat, has ever 
received. This man was Patrick A. ColHns, twice executive head 
of the city government, and who, had death spared him, had only 
to speak to be renamed by the will of the people. 

Mr. ColUns was one of the most striking figures this state of 
eminent men has ever produced. He was the man who is said 
to have elected Cleveland in 1884 by a superb burst of oratory at 
Albany; he was the man who, in a second memorable address, 
seconded the nomination of Cleveland in 1892. He was a man 
for whom thousands of RepubHcans voted, in whom was crystal- 
lized those sentiments of Democracy which made him a power. 

He was clean. He had been in public life for many years, yet 
his record under the glare of pubUcity was unstained by a word 
or an insinuation. In days when impassioned and vengeful men 
magnified trivial things into monstrosities as a weapon against a 
candidate, there was notjiing for him save praise. 

This is a marvellous achievement for a man who held public 
office as long as Mr. Colhns did. When first elected to the mayor's 
chair, Mr. Collins had a far less majority than at his second elec- 
tion. He had been tried and found not wanting. He was the 
ideal candidate of his party. 

Above all, he was a man. 

Boston Transcript 

To sum up the record and character of a man so recently in 
touch with pubUc duties and responsibihties, and give him the full 
measure of justice, is not easy. The benefit of perspective is lack- 
ing. The side-lights which time casts upon every life and every 
event are not available to guide us. Friendships and enmities 
may be too fresh to render impartial judgment possible, yet in every 



176 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

life there have been distinguishing characteristics seen and known 
of all men. Upon the basis of these practically unchallenged 
qualities, it will be generally conceded that the late mayor Collins 
if not a remarkable man was yet in a better sense an unusual one. 
No one who sympathizes with honest human endeavor can with- 
hold admiration for the courage and the dauntless resolution with 
which he challenged one seemingly insuperable obstacle after 
another as it arose in his earliest childhood, and which up to the 
time he became a man he had conquered. Like the late President 
Lincoln, if we may except the few tender years in which he had 
the advantage of the public schools, he wrested education from 
an early life of manual toil, and strengthened a virile mind by a 
profound familiarity with judiciously selected books rather than 
weakened it by omnivorous reading. This method served him per- 
haps better than he knew. He might not himself have been aware 
of how broad and dependable was the storehouse of his informa- 
tion, but it showed in his extemporaneous efforts on special occa- 
sions as well as in his more carefully prepared addresses. 

Boston Daily Advertiser 

Whatever Mr. Collins aspired to in politics he had already had. 
He had just refused the honor of a nomination to the highest execu- 
tive office in the state government. He had been twice elected 
mayor, and was his party's candidate for another term. His 
death closes on a story of repeated successes and few failures. . . . 
At least it was certain that the large business interests of the city 
were satisfied with his administration, and were prepared to sup- 
port his candidacy for still another term. It is equally certain 
that in his death noted Americans without any dividing line of 
party, race, or creed, vie to honor his life and his achievements. 
In all these respects then his death was not untimely, if we wish 
to die as most men wish, at the height and in the full glory of life's 
successes. 

Boston Journal 

Mayor Collins was a self-made man, and one whose rise to fame 
is an inspiration to every poor boy. For years he was a recognized 
leader of his race among the scores of eloquent leaders which that 
race has given to the United States. Had he devoted less of his 
time to his party and his people, he would have been one of Massa- 
chusetts' foremost lawyers. As an orator he was of surpassing 
eloquence. His wit was of the finest quality, his logic was con- 
vincing, and his power to move audiences did not desert him even 
in the days of advancing age and physical weakness. Mayor 
Collins was an aggressively honest man — of that there never was 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 177 

the slightest doubt. He entered City Hall without experience in 
the municipal life, and he lacked youth to pit against experience. 
He was obliged to depend largely upon the advice of friends and 
the information of subordinates. 

Providence (R.I.) Journal 

The sudden death of Mayor Collins of Boston is an event of 
more than local moment. Mr. Collins was well known both 
throughout the nation and abroad. He was a Congressman from 
Massachusetts for six years, and Consul-general at London for 
four years. His family came to the United States from Ireland 
when he was only three years old, and as a boy he had to make his 
own way. He fitted himself for the legal profession by many 
sacrifices, and the success which came to him was richly earned. 
He won the respect and liking even of his political opponents, 
and his standing in his own party was very high. If at times he 
permitted his passionate love of his native land to lead him into 
indiscretions of speech, he was not a man to cherish personal 
animosities or forget his duties to his adopted country. Mr. 
ColHns had been mayor of Boston since 1902, and had filled the 
position with ability and dignity. He will be sincerely mourned 
by his fellow-citizens. 

Washington (D.C.) Star 

Patrick A. Collins was another man who, in his career, illustrated 
that the Republic is opportunity. The list is long, but his is an 
honorable name on it. He rose from penury, and rapidly. From 
an upholsterer's bench to a lawyer's office, and from there to the 
field of politics, he had success all along the line by force of talent 
and character and industry. Dead at sixty-one, he was the fore- 
most Democrat in New England, with the possible exception of 
Richard Olney. His party, which had repeatedly honored him, will 
miss him. He would have made an excellent governor. 



Keene (N.H.) Republican 

Massachusetts received with sorrow Thursday the news of the 
death of Patrick A. Collins, mayor of Boston. Mr. Collins was a 
man of high character, conspicuous integrity, unusual personal 
power, and large capacity for pubUc service, to which he gave a 
large part of his life. Mr. Collins was not only one of the most 
prominent Irish-American citizens in the United States, but a leader 
recognized abroad as well; a power in a great international 
movement. 



178 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Lowell Mail 

The life story of Patrick A. Collins, mayor of Boston, whose 
sudden death at Hot Springs, Virginia, yesterday has caused pro- 
found grief wherever he was known, reads hke a romance, and con- 
tains an encouraging lesson for every ambitious and energetic boy 
with red blood in his veins. 

For more than a generation Patrick A. ColHns had been an 
imposing figure in the civic life of Massachusetts, and for a quarter 
of a century his personahty has loomed up in the broad field of 
national poHtics. Nor was his fame confined to the country of 
his adoption, for as Consul-general at London, during the second 
administration of Grover Cleveland, he made a record which gave 
him international fame as a statesman and diplomat. 

WooNsocKET (R.I.) News 

On both sides of the ocean Patrick A. Collins, the deceased 
mayor of Boston, is mourned to-day. So wide was his fame, so 
great his abihties, so much more an honor to the office than the 
office could honor him, that it seems too narrow almost to lessen 
his name by attaching an official appellation that is merely local. 
And therein lay the good fortune of Boston that the quality of 
mind which made him a loyal servant of the island of his nativity 
and of the land of his adoption also made him a lover of the city 
of his residence, and one who deemed no amount of talent that was 
his or any man's could be wasted if all given to his city. 

Boston has had many able mayors certainly, many men whose 
name has been national, but none politically wiser, purer, or more 
faithful than Patrick A. Collins. In Ireland his name was a house- 
hold word, and was a close link of afifection between that country 
and this. In the cabin- homes he was idolized, and also in aristo- 
cratic and titled Dublin he was well remembered and admired 
for the intellectual qualities which his visits to that city had served 
to put in evidence. 

Albany (N.Y.) Knickerbocker 

In the death of Mayor Patrick A. Collins of Boston the Common- 
wealth of Massachusetts has lost one of her best citizens. Mayor 
Collins was an ideal citizen in politics. Born in Ireland he came 
to the United States in early childhood. Without money or in- 
fluential friends he began the struggle which soon tests the caliber 
of men. Through honest toil he accumulated enough money to 
permit him to enter the Harvard Law School in 1868. Four years 
later he was admitted to the bar of Massachusetts. Mayor 
Collins 's uprightness as well as his eminence as a statesman was 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 179 

so thoroughly appreciated abroad that his prominence in the 
Fenian Congress held in Philadelphia in 1865 was overlooked by 
the British government vi^hen he was named as Consul-general in 
London. 

Brooklyn Eagle 

Patrick A. Collins, mayor of Boston, who died suddenly at Hot 
Springs, Virginia, was a representative Irishman, and a represen- 
tative American. There has been no finer illustration of the pos- 
sibihties which this country opens before the poor immigrant boy 
if the boy has the qualities by which to rise. There have been few 
finer examples of the success with which this country rewards the 
poor boy with honorable ambition for public service, who backs 
his ambition by character and indomitable perseverance. As a 
poor boy Colhns worked in a carpenter and in a blacksmith shop, 
and eight years at the upholstery trade in order to get money to 
study law. He died mayor of Boston, deeply mourned in that 
city, and the close personal friend of men all over the country 
whose friendship is a decoration. The secret of that success was 
that Collins was a good American, of a sort that is beginning to be 
called old-fashioned. He was never smitten by the modern fierce 
love of money, which absorbs so many Americans of native stock, 
but which even a generation ago was despised by most of the. leaders 
of public opinion. 

Boston Record 

Patrick A. Collins died the foremost Irishman in public life in 
the country. He died one of the ablest Americans who ever held 
executive office, to whose abiUty and probity tribute is paid 
to-day by the most eminent men in the land. He had won his 
high place through his unaided efforts, his native wit, tact, and 
political sagacity. He was self-made, and how much of a force 
he made himself in the pohtics of the country at large the cam- 
paigns from 1884 to 1892 testify. No man in his party had done 
more to aid Mr. Cleveland to his election the first time; no man 
did more to help secure his nomination the second time. He was 
a brilliant public speaker with the gift of putting his argument or 
address in crisp, clear, concise form, that caught and compelled 
attention. As an executive his uprightness and independence, his 
idea of public trust, made him an official of the highest type. 
He was knovra through the nation as he was in city and state, and 
his character had won affection as well as esteem. 

Minneapolis (Minn.) Times 

In the death of Mayor Collins Boston loses an able, honest, and 
careful executive, and the Democratic party loses an influential 



i8o LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

member who has been much before the public. Over six months 
ago he was elected mayor for the second time by the largest plu- 
raUty ever given a candidate for the city, and during his term of 
office he has conducted the municipal government as if it had been 
his private business. To Mayor Colhns there was no spoils for 
the victor, but a square deal and an honest administration for the 
benefit of every taxpayer. Therefore, Mayor Collins was popular ; 
therefore, Boston will mourn the death of an honest man. 

Fall River Herald 

In the death of Mayor Colhns the city of Boston has suffered 
a heavy loss, though the loss is not pecuharly that of the city. The 
state and the nation have lost a distinguished citizen, and the 
Democratic party has lost a leader of wide influence whose ideals 
embodied the highest aspirations of the party. Coming to this 
country at a very early age, Mr. Colhns rehed upon his own energy, 
and took advantage of the opportunities offered him by American 
institutions to hft himself into the foremost ranks of men. He 
understood what statesmanship in this repubhc stands for, and in 
his maturer years he was an ardent supporter of all that worked 
for the promotion and welfare of popular government. 

Buffalo (N.Y.) Commercial 

Patrick A. Collins, mayor of Boston, who died yesterday, was 
one of the finest representatives of the Americans of Irish stock 
who figured conspicuously in the making of a republic. The son 
of a poor immigrant widow, he began working for a hving at the 
age of twelve, yet managed to graduate at the Harvard Law School 
and to become a successful lawyer. He made his mark and sus- 
tained his reputation in state and national pohtics; was a most 
influential and useful organizer of Irish-American sympathy for 
the Home Rule movement in Ireland, and one of the most accept- 
able mayors Boston ever had. This is a record worthy the ambi- 
tion of any man. 

Charlotte (N.C.) News 

The death of the Hon. Patrick A. Colhns of Boston removes one 
of the stanchest Democrats of the country. His taking away is 
a distinct loss to Boston, to the Democratic party, and to the nation. 
He had an illustrious career, and his hfe record is one that may be 
pointed to with pride. He was in Congress six years, was presid- 
ing officer of the National Democratic Convention of 1888, and 
was Consul-general at London from 1893 to 1897. His death was 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS i8i 

a distinct shock to Boston as well as to his state, and will be very 
generally mourned throughout the nation. 

Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post 

The death of Patrick A. Collins of Boston brings unfeigned 
sorrow to all good Democrats, to Irishmen, and to all true Americans 
of whatever race or party. He has signally illustrated the oppor- 
tunity of a poor immigrant by reaching almost the Umit of official 
preferment permitted by the Constitution, and if this hurdle was 
one he could not leap, he leaves the next less distinctive career of 
a man true in national and civic office, loyal to his former country- 
men in their aspirations. He had the native wit and keen intel- 
lect of his race, and with them he coupled courage and steadfast- 
ness in all faiths. As an orator he was the peer of any in genuine 
cogent argument, without deluging his speech with the froth of 
mere rhetoric. 

Dublin Freeman's Journal 

All the Irish papers paid generous tribute to the worth of the 
late Mayor Collins and to his loyal and effective service in behalf 
of Home Rule and Land Reform in Ireland. The following ex- 
tract is taken from the editorial columns of the Freeman's Journal, 
the recognized leader of the Irish press : He was one of those Irish- 
Americans who seemed to chng closer to their own the higher they 
chmbed amongst the stranger. He was one of the pillars of the 
old Land League in the states; he was a leading spirit in the 
National League when the Land League was suppressed ; and he 
was one of the first Irishmen in America to hail the dawn when, 
after ten years of strife, unity was brought about again at home, 
and to inspire Irish-America with a new hope in the old and im- 
mortal cause. What Patrick Collins was to the Irish National 
cause in the old days we of this generation can hardly realize, 
but perhaps some idea of what the men of the 'eighties thought of 
him may be gathered from two circumstances. They made him a 
Freeman of DubUn, with Butt, Parnell, and Gladstone; and they 
hung his portrait over the mantelpiece of the principal room of 
the offices of the National Organization. . . . No one felt more 
bitterly the damage done to the Irish cause by the disastrous 
division of 1890. For a time, like the majority of the Irish- Ameri- 
cans, he retired from participation in Irish affairs. He waited 
quietly and hopefully for the day when Irish Nationalists would 
come together again in the name of the motherland. Once that 
happy event was assured he did not hesitate, — he was again at 
the head of our people in America, urging them on to the old fight 



i82 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

for the old cause. It is impossible for us at home to realize the 
deep debt of gratitude we owe to Patrick Collins. 

And yet during all these years of his devotion to Ireland and her 
cause he played a very large part in the social and pohtical Hfe of 
Massachusetts, and of the Republic. He had been a member of 
Congress; he was for several years, under Cleveland, Consul- 
general in London, the most important Consular appointment 
in the gift of the President ; and he has died mayor of Boston. 

The Collins Memorial 

A few days after the funeral a suggestion was made in 
one of the daily papers that it would be fitting for the public 
to erect some form of memorial to perpetuate the high char- 
acter and distinguished public services of Mayor Collins. 
Some of the most prominent men in the city in various walks 
of life and activity immediately gave their hearty approval 
to the plan, and on September 26, a meeting was held at the 
Exchange Building on State Street for the purpose of giving 
some expression to the popular demand in this respect. Over 
this meeting the Hon. Richard Olney presided. After a 
brief exchange of views a committee was chosen to receive 
subscriptions and to determine the form and cost of the me- 
morial. This committee was made up as follows : Chairman, 
Jerome Jones; treasurer, James J. Storrow; secretary, M. 
P. Curran. Executive committee, the officers already named 
and Lucius Tuttle, president of the Boston and Maine 
Railroad, Thomas B. Fitzpatrick, Robert M. Burnett, A. 
Shuman, Dr. John G. Blake, James M. Prendergast, Very 
Rev. William Byrne, Vicar-general of the archdiocese, Rt. 
Rev. William Lawrence, D.D., Episcopal Bishop of Massa- 
chusetts, former mayor Edwin U. Curtis, Gen. Charles H. 
Taylor, Hon. Curtis Guild, Jr., Thomas J. Gargan. 

Immediately after the adjournment of the meeting the 
executive committee went into session, and drafted a form 
of appeal to the public for contributions. On September 29, 
just three days after the meeting was held, the treasurer ac- 
knowledged the receipt of $11,290. The sum fixed for the 
needs of the committee was $25,000. In sixteen business 
days from the date of the first appeal the fund had reached 
the sum of $25,674.25, and when the books were closed on 
October 29 the amount of money in the bank available for 
the memorial was $26,444.12. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



183 



No fund of this nature was ever collected so rapidly, and 
never for a similar cause was the public response so prompt. 
This fact emphasizes very strongly the high esteem in which 
Mr. Collins was held by the substantial men of the city, 
whose interests he conserved so faithfully and so well. 

Following is a list of the subscribers whose prompt gen- 
erosity made a Collins Memorial possible : — 



Henry L. Higginson 

James M. Prendergast 

Thomas B. Fitzpatrick 

Lucius Tuttle 

Boston Globe 

Jerome Jones 

James Donovan 

Rt. Rev. Wm. Lawrence, D.D. 

Robert M. Morse 

James J. Storrow 

William L. Douglas 

WilHam B. Rice 

John B. Martin 

Boston Post 

Eugene N. Foss 

Hayden, Stone & Co. 

George U. Crocker 

Charles E. Stratton 

William J. Riley 

Jordan, Marsh Co. 

R. H. White Co. 

W. Murray Crane 

Thomas M. Babson 

William Filene Sons Co. 

J. Alfred Mitchell 

Robert Winsor 

Frank G. Webster 

R. Clipston Sturgis 

Brown, Durrell & Co. 

Philip A. Curran 

E. D. Leavitt 

Henry Siegel Co. 

Chase & Sanborn 

James M. Morrison 

M. Steinert Sons & Co. 

H. Staples Potter 



Curtis Guild, Jr. 

A. Shuman, & Co. 

William A. Gaston 

Very Rev. William Byrne, V.G. 

Thomas J. Gargan 

Robert M. Burnett 

James W. Kenney 

Evans S. Pillsbury, 2d 

John F. Fitzgerald 

James E. Cotter 

D. J. Hern 
Augustine J. Daly 
Boston American 
Advertiser and Record 
Boston Journal 
Shepard, Norwell Co. 

E. D. Codman 

Hon. John A. Keliher 
John C. Cobb 
Dr. Thomas B. Shea 
Dr. Francis J. Keany 
John F. Waters 

F. S. Moseley & Co. 
John F. Noonan 
William J. Barry 
Richard Olney 
Robert M. Morse 

Rev. Herbert S. Johnson 
H. S. Carruth 
Eugene S. Sullivan 
Godfrey Morse 
Sir Ernest C. Cochrane 
John H. Duane 
D. C. Linscott 
Thomas M. Devlin 
S. Hichborn 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



Boston Herald 
Boston Transcript 
Boston Traveller 
J. Reed Whipple 
Joseph J. Corbett 
Hendricks Club 
M. P. Curran 
Joseph H. O'Neill 
Dr. John G. Blake 
W. T. A. Fitzgerald 
Michael Maynes 
Daniel A. Whelton 
M. M. Lomasney 
Edward J. Donovan 
Joseph P. Lomasney 
Joshua B. Holden 
Henry H. Kelt 
Andrew Anderson 
Bernard Hyneman 
Moseley Taylor 
Charles H. Taylor, 3d 
Donald C. MacDonald 
Dr. Francis J. Donoghue 
M. E. Hartigan . 
M. E. Hennessey 
Thomas Minton 
John M. Minton 
F. L. Higginson 
F. W. 

P. C. Brooks 
F. C. Murphy 
L. P. Hollander & Co. 
F. J. O'Hara 
Robert C. Hooper 
W. S. Heath 
C. P. Jaynes 
Albert A. Pope 
P. J. Timmins 
Thomas H. Austin 
Edmund A. McDonald 
Aaron D. Weld's Sons 
Dudley L. Pickman 
George J. Raymond 
Jacob Norton's Sons 
John D. Long 
John F. Moors 



Charles Logue 
S. & R. J. Lombard 
Falvey Brothers Co. 
James A. Davis & Co. 
W. Putnam Page 
J. H. Benton, Jr. 
Fletcher Sprague Hyde 
Stanley W. Hyde 
Charles H. Hyde 
Edward B. McSheehy 
James R. Gerrish 
Daniel J. Kiley 
John J. Carroll 
Charles D. McKey 
James J. Phelan 
Nathaniel Thayer 
John Walsh 
Eben S. Draper 
Conrad J. Rueter 
Gen. W. A. Bancroft 
Junius Beebe 
B. J. Rothwell 

E. P. Howe 
Daniel P. SulHvan 

D. R. Emerson & Co. 
J. D. Gahm 
George G. Hall 
Laban Pratt 
John I. Mulray 
George Willcomb & Co. 
Ludlow Mfg. Association 
Fred L. Carter 
Ginn & Co. 
Joseph H. Clark 
Robert Batcheller 
Joseph S. Waterman 
Boyle Brothers 
Clement S. Houghton 
John C. Paige & Co. 
Rueter & Co. 

F. A. Claflin 
Charles R. Codman 
N. Waxman 
Walter M. Lowney 
Little Johnney 

Dr. Paul Carson 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



185 



Charles S. Hamlin 

George G. Crocker 

Nathan Matthews 

Friend 

Alexander Cochrane 

Joseph B. Russell 

Francis L. Coohdge 

L. C. Chase & Co. 

John Hogg 

Anonymous 

J. P. Reynolds, Jr. 

Hugh Young 

H. L. Burrage 

Woodward Hudson 

H. O. Underwood 

Bradley & Tyson 

Samuel S. Shaw 

Patrick H. Powers 

Benjamin W. Wells 

John H. Donovan 

John Donahue 

Fred H. Temple 

The Rev. Hugh Roe O'Donnell 

Charles E. Folsom 

James A. McKibben 

Timothy A. Butler 

Patrick H. Fahey 

John M. Casey 

Wilham A. Leahy 

C. L. York 

Rt. Rev. Denis O 'Callahan 

D. D. 

P. A. McVicker 

Jacob Dreyfus & Sons 

Mass. Breweries Company 

Friend 

George A. Wilson 

W. Prentiss Parker 

George A. Gardner 

Thomas F. Galvin 

George A. Comins 

David B. Shaw 

Ambrose Woods 

W. J. Emerson 

L. M. Dyer & Co., inc. 

James A. Gallivan 



H. B. Lovering 

A Friend and Admirer 

C. James Connelly 

Timothy W. Murray 

Otis Kimball 

Edmund M. Wheelwright 

Ferdinand F. French 

Arthur F. Estabrook 

John T. Burnett 

Walworth Mfg. Company 

Waldo Bros. 

John M. Graham 

John Roessle 

P. F. Sullivan 

C. A. Campbell 

S. S. Pierce Co. 

Henry A. Doherty 

Ward 9 Quincy Club 

George E. McKay 

Lyman Nichols 

Paul H. Kendricken 

Isaac P. Gragg 

The Rev. F. J. Curran 

Most Rev. John J. Williams, 

Archbishop 
H. G. Curtis 
Edward Atkinson 
Frank Jones Brewing Co. 
Charles S. Eaton 
Henry Parkman 
Hon. Daniel V. Mclsaac 
R. D. Evans 
T. F. Boyle 
Francis Bartlett 
Survivors of Senate of 1S70 
Melvin O. Adams 
John A. Kiggen 
David N. SkiUings 
P. J. Kennedy 
C. H. Dalton 
Patrick McGovem 
Joseph P. O'Connell 
James J. Coughlan 
F. A. Seamans 
Patrick F. Donovan 
John E. Gilman 



i86 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



Crawford House 
Little, Brown & Co. 
William J. Donovan 
Salem D. Charles 
John A. Tobin 
Arthur Lyman 
Thomas P. Beal 
John J. Gartland 
Andrew J. Lloyd & Co. 
L. B. Thacher 
Moses Williams 
James Mahoney 
Hugh Montague 
Charles E. Adams & Co. 
James A. Houston 
George J. Martin 
William H. Devine, M.D. 
Newsboys' Protective Union 
The Rev. R. Neagle 
William T. Shea 
H. P. Nawn 
The Rev. M. Clarke 
Santiago P. Kelly 
Heaney Mfg. Company 
Mary A. Gleeson 
Mayo Men's Association 
C. E. Ahearn 

Sanitary & Street Cleaning 
Employees. International 
Brotherhood of Teamsters. Lo- 
cal 149 
Knights of St. Brendan 
Ben Franklin Assembly 5463 
James F. O'Donnell 
James K. Crowley 
Division 4 A. O. H. Medford 
Joseph D. Dillworth 
Edgar P. Benjamin 
Charles V. Dacey 
Schirmer, Chapin & Emmons 
Hon. Daniel W. Lane 
James J. & Pierce J. Grace 
Powhattan Club 
Ward 25, Democratic Com. 
George Fred Richmond 
WiUiam T. Shea 



Tammany Club, Ward 17 
Thomas A. Whalen 
Robert Treat Paine 
Elijah George 
Ward 7, Democratic Club 

C. C. Buckley 
John H. Coffey 
William C. Norcross Co. 
John J. ColUns 
WilKam B. SulHvan 
George H, Callahan 

T. Remick & Co. 
Peter H. Donohue 
South Boston Paving Division 

employees 
Rev. WiUiam P. McQuaid 
P. H. Costello 
Robert Treat Paine, Jr. 
James H. Morton 
James Buckner 
James O. Jordan 
H. A. McGlenen 
Cobb, Bates & Yerxa Co. 
Edmund Reardon 
Temple Ohabei Shalom 
Andrew J. Peters 

D. Joseph Linehan 
John B. Graham 
John D. Drum 

E. T. Slattery Co. 
J, J. McNamara 
Guy W. Currier 

Members Board of Aldermen '05 

John F. Cronin 

Employees Ferry Division 

Amory A. Lawrence 

Glanworth 

Hon. William S. McNary 

Hon. W. W. Crapo 

Somerset Associates, Ward 14 

Rev, John F. Cummins 

Fred B. Carpenter 

Joseph J. Norton 

Edward B. Daily 

James H. Doyle 

Members of Concord Club 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



187 



Osborne Howes 
Henry W. Swift 
R, H. Stearns & Co. 
James Mulcahy 
Hersey Mfg. Company 
Edwin U. Curtis 
Charles Wirth 
Michael H, Cox 
Edward Gagan 
Cumner, Jones & Co. 
Samuel H. Hudson 
R. J. Johnson 
Margaret M. Holley 
Arthur L. Spring 
John B. McLaughlin 
Employees School Dept. 
Thomas Sherwin 
George Phillips 
Charles Weil & Co. 
George A. Flynn 
T. Jefferson Coolidge, Jr. 
A. J. Houghton Co. 
Joseph Lee 
George McCarthy 
Maj. Geo. F. H. Murray 



Francis C. Lowell 
Robert A. Woods 
Arthur W. Dolan 
John J. Sullivan 
William Murphy 
James M. Sullivan 
John B. Fitzpatrick 
John F. McDonald 
P. E. Duffee 

B. A. A. Employees 
Sir Thomas Lipton 
Sewer Workers 
Joshua Atwood, 3d 
Charles V. Riordon 

The Rev. J. W. McMahon 

Frank J. Linehan, Alderman 

Congressman John A. Sullivan 

Charles H. Slattery 

Fred L. Smith 

Ward 16 Tammany Club, and 

Ward Committee 
John J. O 'Callahan 
Boston Truant Officers 

C. C. Jackson 
A Neighbor 



CHAPTER XIII 

Memorial Meeting of the Bar Association— Addresses by the Cor- 
poration Counsel— The Hon. John D. Long, the Hon. Winslow 
Warren, John P. Leahy, Esq., and Judge J. B. Richardson. 

THE Bar Association comprising the great body of 
lawyers in Boston, at a stated meeting held on Sat- 
urday, December 9, 1905, paid appropriate tribute 
to the memory of their late associate, Patrick Andrew Col- 
lins. Mr. Alfred Hemmenway presided, and gathered in 
the court room were some of the most prominent lawyers 
in the city and county. The Hon. Winslow Warren was 
selected by the Association to present resolutions express- 
ing the sentiments of the Bar and the deep regrets of its 
members at the loss of a distinguished professional asso- 
ciate and brother. In prefacing the resolutions which he 
offered, Mr. Warren said : — 

Before presenting the resolutions of the Committee of the Bar 
Association I desire to say a few words expressive of my apprecia- 
tion of one whose career was so interesting, so stirring, and so 
honorable in every way. General Collins was admitted to the 
Suffolk Bar nearly ten years after my own admission, but I can 
hardly recall the time that I did not know him at the bar. I 
remember him years back as a young, earnest, ambitious, capable 
lawyer, building up by degrees a large practice by force of his own 
abilities and by the strong way in which he presented his cases. 
He early attracted the attention and won the confidence of the 
bench and bar, and gave promise of attaining a very high rank at 
the bar. If that promise was not entirely fulfilled, it was because, 
like others of his race, the excitement and fascination of political 
life absorbed the time which the law, as a jealous mistress, de- 
mands of her votaries and thus prevented his becoming a deeply 
read student of the law or thoroughly versed in its science. His 
practice, however, became a large and lucrative one, and he was 
recognized as an able and a successful practitioner. 

Early in his legal life he took an active part in politics, was a 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 189 

state representative and senator, judge-advocate general of the 
state militia, and member of Congress from an important dis- 
trict in Boston. In Washington he was a useful and prominent 
representative. He seldom indulged in oratory, never unless he 
had something important to say, but his solid qualities, his judg- 
ment, and his familiarity with the needs of his district, as well as 
his devotion to the country's welfare, won for him the confidence of 
members of all poHtical parties. He took an active part in pro- 
moting the election of Mr. Cleveland in 1884, and during his first 
administration was a trusted adviser and counsellor. 

After Mr. Cleveland's election a second time, General Collins 
was offered a place in the Cabinet, but declined it and was appointed 
Consul-general at London. It is greatly to his credit that after a 
long poUtical service the emoluments of that office were of impor- 
tance to him, and more, that although his afiihation with the Irish 
movements in this country had caused some to doubt whether the 
appointment at London would prove a suitable one, he filled 
the position with eminent acceptability and in every respect to 
the credit of his adopted country. 

Returning from London he resumed the practice of the law, but 
it was difficult, after years of absence, to regain his practice, and he 
was soon called upon by his fellow- citizens to become mayor of 
Boston. Twice he has filled that position with the greatest credit. 
Probably no office in New England is so onerous — none more 
surrounded with vicious influences, but not a stain remained upon 
his honor, and his administration was the admiration even of his 
opponents. The remarkable tribute of his fellow-citizens since 
his death shows more clearly than any words of mine the value 
of his work as mayor. 

Personally, General Collins was a dehghtful companion, with 
unusual conversational powers, a ready wit and a pungent method 
of expression. He hated all shams and mercilessly exposed any 
who had the hardihood to attempt to bend him to devious ways. 
Although not born in this country, he was an intense American 
and ever jealous of this country's honor. No better illustration 
can be given than a story told me by a friend who was with General 
ColUns soon after his first election: Collins was talking with a 
Catholic archbishop, when two or three of his supporters gathered 
around and one of them said, "General, you can do a good deal 
now for your Catholic friends." General Collins turned upon the 
speaker and said, "I want you to understand, I am first an Ameri- 
can, second a Democrat, and third a Catholic." In that was the 
key to much of his pohtical life, an intense patriotism, and a keen 
sense of honor. Such a man is a great loss to our community, 
and this association does honor to itself when it pays its heartfelt 
tribute to the memory of so true a member. 



I90 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Mr. Warren then presented the following resolutions which 
were unanimously adopted by the Association: — 

Voted, That the Bar Association of the city of Boston, pro- 
foundly sensible of its loss in the death of Hon. Patrick A. CoUins, 
one of its earliest members, hereby inscribes upon its records this trib- 
ute of appreciation and respect : — 

"By his own unaided efforts he early won for himself a high place 
at the bar, bringing to the pracdce of the law the same great abihty, 
the same high standard of honor, and the same unwearied devotion to 
duty that in later years he exhibited in his public service in the Con- 
gress of the Umted States and as mayor of Boston. 

"In all the relations of hfe he was conspicuous by his clear in- 
sight, his power of statement, his absolute fairness, his wit and humor, 
and his engaging manner. Firm in his sense of right, unyielding and 
strong, he was ever considerate of others and ready to give a helping 
hand to those less fortunate or less well endowed by nature than him- 
self. 

"As a citizen his example will be a constant encouragement to a 
simple, upright life, and his pubUc career will bring aid to those who 
strive for civic honesty and believe in courage, independence, and fidel- 
ity in the administration of pubhc affairs." 

Voted, That the Corporation Counsel for the city of Boston, 
Thomas M. Babson, be requested to present these resolutions to the 
Superior Court for the County of Suffolk. 

Address by the Hon. John D. Long 

The Hon. John D. Long, formerly governor of the Com- 
monwealth, and later Secretary of the Navy in the Cabinets 
of Presidents McKinley and Roosevelt, delivered the follow- 
ing graceful tribute to Mayor Collins with whom he had 
served two terms in Congress : — 

I think it is a mistake to count the early material conditions of 
Mr. ColHns's life as unfavorable to his advancement. Given the 
natural genius which was his, as with Lincoln and so many others, 
his was a rare good fortune from the first. Landing on our shores 
a child, all the best opportunities of American hfe opened at once 
wide before him, and he seized them. The mechanic's toil, the 
evening school, the immediate close touch with the body of the 
people and their quick, responsive recognition of this bright, eager 
spirit, who was of them, and who shared their sympathies — all 
these assured his rise, as no college degree could have done. Edu- 
cation is the same, whatever the channel through which it comes, 
and it came to him free and full through the institutions and 



MR. COLLINS'S RESIDENCE IN BRIGHTON 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 191 

through the very atmosphere of the city which he lived to repay 
and to honor. 

He had such a large and varied experience in poHtical and general 
public life that his practice of the law is only one of the features 
in his brilliant career. Member of each branch of the General 
Court of Massachusetts, member of Congress, our Consul-general 
at London, mayor of Boston, at which post he died — under present 
circumstances an almost irreparable loss to the city — a familiar 
figure on the platform in political campaigns and at all our civic 
occasions, he was the most prominent man of his nationality in 
public life in New England, if not indeed in the United States. 

In view of all this, it is the more striking that he should have 
attained and held a place at the bar among those of the legal pro- 
fession whose names are quickest recognized when the roll is 
called. He practised in all the courts ; he was retained in impor- 
tant cases ; he was especially apt and strong in addressing juries ; 
he was always in demand at hearings before legislative committees ; 
and, need I say, he was beloved by his fellow-lawyers. Dear Pat 
Collins ! We cannot speak of him now without recalhng his win- 
ning and lovable personaHty. The wit and eloquence of his race 
are proverbial, and he had those gifts in a rare degree. Some of his 
bright sayings are as familiar in our community as household 
words. There were occasions when he rose to the height of the 
orator. Always through his speech, whether on the platform or 
in the social circle, there played the lambent glow of the most de- 
lightful humor. It was a pleasure to meet him, to clasp hands 
with him, and to exchange with him the passing word, whether on 
the sidewalk or at some common gathering place. And after all, 
in this brotherly intercourse of ours, well as we think we know one 
another, we get little more than these fleeting and brief intercom- 
munications. 

But this was not all. Underneath this were the perfect struc- 
tural honesty and integrity of the man, so conspicuous and so longed 
for in these days. He was worthy of every trust reposed in him. 
No evil was in his heart. He was an honor to his native Ireland, 
the welfare of which was so dear to him. He was a loyal citizen 
and servant of our Commonwealth, which he made his home. 
He is an example to every aspiring young man, whatever his race 
or circumstances, of the value and fruit of an honest and true and 
therefore of a happy life. Green be the turf above him. 



Address by John P. Leahy 

Mr, Collins was for many years a member of the Council of the 
Bar Association, and held an honored place among his associates. 



192 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

The qualities which endeared him to the world and marked 
him as a man of sterling character and great ability were culti- 
vated and ripened during the early years of his professional career. 

Many of the choicest friendships of his Hfe were formed and 
cemented during his active practice at the bar. It is appropriate, 
therefore, that we should express our appreciation by the adoption 
of these resolutions. 

Patrick A. Colhns possessed a nature as frank and unaffected 
as a child's, a mind stored with the treasures of varied learning 
and experience, a heart responsive to the appeals of his fellow-men. 

He was loyal to every cause in which he enlisted, to the suffer- 
ing land of his birth, and to "the liberty-loving land of his choice, 
to his rehgious and political principles, to his brethren in the pro- 
fession, and to his legion of friends. His integrity was unquestioned, 
his judgment sound and clear, his eloquence full of charm and 
earnestness, his whole career a protest against intolerance and 
prejudice of every kind. 

The barriers which impede the progress of ordinary men stimu- 
lated his ambition and prompted him to greater efforts. 

The simple lad who watched the summer clouds above the 
modest cabins in far-away Fermoy, became a sound lawyer, a ripe 
scholar, the leader of great movements, the confidant of Presidents 
and Cabinets, a trusted legislator and executive, and died amidst 
a scene of almost unparalleled grief, when a whole community 
followed him to the grave. 

If we needed an object lesson to emphasize the opportunities 
afforded by our laws and institutions, his hfe would furnish it. 
To those institutions and their development upon safe and con- 
servative lines, he gave the very best years of his Hfe. 

He never wavered for an instant in his abiding faith in their 
permanency. If disappointments came, he watched and waited 
in patience, until another day when wiser counsels would prevail. 

As we gather to-day in his honor, we seem to hear him repeat 
the lines of his favorite poem: — 

"He who died at Azan sends 
Hope to comfort all his friends. 

Loving friends ! Be wise and dry 
Straightway every weeping eye. 
What ye lift upon the bier 
Is not worth a single tear. 
'Tis an empty sea-shell — one 
Out of which the pearl is gone; 
The shell is broken, it lies there; 
The pearl, the all, the soul, is here." 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 193 

Address by Corporation Counsel Babson 

After the adjournment of the Bar Association meeting the 
Court was announced in the person of Mr. Justice Richard- 
son, who took his seat on the bench while the members re- 
mained standing. After the formaHties incident to such an 
occasion had been duly observed, the Corporation Counsel, 
the Hon. Thomas M. Babson, addressed the Court. He said : 
*'May it please your Honor, the Suffolk bar, in evidence of 
the respect and affection in which it held the late Patrick A. 
Collins, has met and adopted resolutions in which it tried 
to express some portion at least of the regard in which it 
held their associate, the late mayor. As the Corporation 
Counsel of the city of Boston, I desire to present this memo- 
rial to the Court." He then read the resolutions which had 
been adopted by the Bar Association and printed in the 
report of its proceedings. After performing this delegated 
duty he continued his address as follows : — 

When the inhabitants of a great city cease for a few hours their 
gainful occupations while the last rites are performed over the body 
of a deceased fellow- citizen ; when for a time the trader ceases 
to trade, the mechanic or laborer to work, in order that they may 
express in some way their sorrow for the loss which has come to 
the city which they love ; when in a few short weeks by voluntary 
contributions of comparatively small sums from large numbers of 
people a fund raised to erect some public memorial in honor of 
the man is oversubscribed, there must have been characteristics 
in the deceased which inspired not only admiration and respect, 
but also feelings of love and affection. 

The salient facts in the life of the late mayor are known to all 
men. 

Born in Ireland in 1844, and brought when a mere child to this 
country by his mother, he entered the public schools of this country 
and received there that small part of his education which he owed 
to teachers. Leaving school at quite an early age he became an 
office boy, then an upholsterer and foreman in a large furniture 
establishment. 

In 1868 he was elected to the House of Representatives, and the 
same year entered the Harvard Law School, graduating in 1871 
with the degree of LL.B. He was reelected to the House of 
Representatives in 1869, and served in the State Senate in 1870 
and 1871. 

During all these years he strove mightily for the upbuilding of 
himself, for the comfort of those he loved, and for the welfare of 



194 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

the community in which he lived. He became in these years not 
only a lawyer, but a well-educated man. 

Admitted to the bar in 187 1 he soon acquired an extensive and 
profitable practice which he prosecuted until he was elected in 
1882 to the Forty-eighth Congress, serving in that and the Forty- 
ninth and Fiftieth Congresses from March, 1883, to March, 1889. 

Returning to Boston and to the practice of his profession, which 
he had practically abandoned during these six years, he was ap- 
pointed in 1893 Consul-general at London, serving there until 
some time in 1897. 

He was elected mayor of Boston in December, 1901, serving 
from January i, 1902, until he died. 

My acquaintance with him extended over a period of more than 
thirty years, during a large portion of which our relations were 
those of intimate personal friends. He reminded me more than 
any other person whom I have met of Goldsmith's description of 
the village parson in "The Deserted Village." 



"Like some tall cliff that lifts its awful form 
Swells from the vale and midway leaves the storm, 
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread 
Eternal sunshine settles on its head." 



Ordinarily as you met him and conversed with him he impressed 
you as being in ability and attainments a man similar to yourself, 
and to other ordinary men ; but every once in a while the electric 
spark known as genius would seem to flash forth, the clouds would 
be dispersed, you could see the intellectual height of the man. 
Some words of wit or wisdom would come from him which would 
illumine the subject and settle the matter forever. 

One of the qualities in which he was preeminent was the power 
of attracting men to himself in all walks and conditions of life, 
and making them think, without his teUing them so, that they were 
quite dear to him, and were among those whom he esteemed his 
friends. Few men ever had so large a circle of people who loved 
them and who believed that they were loved in return. This 
circle of personal friends extended in this country north and south, 
east and west, with no regard to race or creed, and little to locality 
or politics. I am informed and believe that throughout Great 
Britain and Ireland his name was as much a household word as it 
was in this country. 

The chief thing which we remember in our late associate is the 
distinguished public service which he rendered to his city, to his 
state, and to his country. For above all he was a true Bostonian, 
loving the city in which he had passed the greater portion of his 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 195 

life, and a patriot loving and anxious to serve the country of his 
adoption. 

Although a great man in many respects, he was not a great 
lawyer. Not that he did not have abiUty which would have made 
him one of the best jury lawyers of his time in the country, not 
that he did not have a mind capable of absorbing legal lore, and 
so sound in its judgment as to be able to give the advantages of 
his legal lore to cHents; but his party, his city, his state, and his 
country called upon him from his early manhood almost constantly 
to render public service, and he rendered it, foregoing thereby a 
large portion of the pecuniary and professional success which he 
otherwise would have attained. 

Not only did the city sustain a great, an almost irreparable loss 
in the taking off of its chief magistrate, but we, members of the 
Suffolk bar and the profession, feel the loss of a loved friend and 
an able and honest lawyer. 

During the sixty-one years of his life he lived more, worked 
more, accomplished more, than most men do in fourscore years. 
His vital energy failing, the worn body declined to furnish suffi- 
cient nutriment to the great mind, and he passed away in what 
ought to have been his prime. 

If agreeable to your Honors, the Bar would ask that the memo- 
rial which we have presented be inscribed in the records of this 
court. 



Address by Judge Richardson 

After Mr. Babson's address Mr. Justice Richardson, 
speaking for the Bench, said: — 

Brethren 0} the Bar: These tributes to the character and life 
of General Colhns, so justly though briefly stated in your memo- 
rial address, and the descriptions of his professional attainments 
and pubhc achievements in its presentation here, leave little to 
be said or done by the Court except to express its concurrence, 
and to direct a compliance with your request. 

No one who takes an interest in the honest efforts of an earnest 
man to accomplish worthy objects; no man who has a capacity 
for appreciating useful achievements performed under hard con- 
ditions ; no one who feels a sympathy for a brave man struggling 
with adversity, and experiences a pleasure in his triumph over it, 
can withhold his approbation or repress a natural impulse to join 
in the general expression of admiration and praise, which the 
contemplation, or even a recital, of them evokes. 



196 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

A glance at the circumstances of the early life of General Collins 
shows a resolute purpose, early formed, to improve himself and his 
condition, followed up by a determination and perseverance in 
carrying out that purpose against obstacles, which to most men 
would have been insurmountable. His only attendance at public 
day schools, so far as I have learned, was three or four years in 
primary and grammar schools in Chelsea, when less than twelve 
years old. After that for about three years we find him at work 
on a farm, in a mill, or a mine in Ohio. In 1859 ^^ ^^^ back 
in Boston at work in the trade or business of upholsterer, in which 
in about three years he became so proficient that he was made 
the foreman of the shop. During this time he attended evening 
schools in Boston, keeping steadily and cheerfully to his resolu- 
tion to acquire what education he could by all the means within 
his reach. He had an alert mind, a good memory, and learned 
easily; and he had what Mr. Choate felicitously described as "the 
priceless value of the love of reading" ; and his library shows that 
he read good literature ; but it was reserved for him to acquire his 
education, especially that part of it which fitted him for his public 
career, in that larger school or university of active life. It is a 
hard school, but it teaches as no other does the valuable lessons 
of industry, courage, perseverance, and self-reliance. American 
biography from Franklin to Collins shows that no other school 
has graduated men who have contributed more to the general 
welfare, or to the strength of the state, or left more encouraging 
and better examples to others than it. The biographies of these 
men show what they had to endure ; but they also prove the truth 
of the words of Tennyson : — 

"Oh, well for him whose will is strong. 
He suffers, but will not sufifer long." 

Heredity has some influence, environment in the majority of 
cases has more, but a man's real character, his personality, in his 
maturity, is chiefly of his own making. 

After graduation from the law school, which he attended while 
at work in Boston, he was admitted to the bar in 1871, at the age 
of twenty-seven years; and so became a member of your profes- 
sion, which has been described to be "as old as magistracy, as 
noble as virtue, and as necessary as justice." His choice in respect 
to a profession was felicitous. It suited his natural aptitude and 
his love of freedom from all restraints. I cannot imagine General 
Collins as a physician, or a priest, or a chemist, or a college pro- 
fessor. Life there would have been too restricted. For the same 
reasons he refused a judgeship. 

One of the felicities of the legal profession is that in it, I think, 
real merit is more readily acknowledged and more ungrudgingly 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 197 

and generously appreciated than in any other profession or pur- 
suit. The study of the law tends to make men hberal, and the 
practice of it, as it brings lawyers into intimate relations with all 
conditions and kinds of life, makes them considerate and charitable. 
No man is more independent than a lawyer of good repute. If he 
is secure in his professional standing, no man, or party, or society, 
or combination, can suppress, or much hinder him. 

Some proficiency in the law as a science is the proper prepara- 
tion for public hfe; and to young Colhns it at once opened the 
way to a long, useful, and honorable career, which ended only with 
his death in September last. 

He had a fair knowledge of the general principles of law, a strong 
sense of natural justice, a good temper, a dignified and courteous 
bearing, a fund of humor, a playful fancy, a quick wit, and a ready 
command of language. I do not think that as a lawyer he had a 
student's taste or aptitude for analyzing or digesting reported cases. 

He had an active mind and solved questions quickly, coming 
often, I think, to his conclusions or judgments by a sort of intuition, 
or intelUgent perception, rather than by slow processes of reasoning, 
of labor, of weighing and balancing the evidence. He preferred 
to study men rather than books ; and nobody questions his natural 
aptitude, or capacity, or tact for deaUng with men. He knew 
human nature, and the conditions and the realities of human 
life. 

He had many qualities for a successful trier of causes with a jury. 
Yet politics certainly — in the good sense of that word — had a 
fascination for him. As a platform orator he had few superiors. 
His address when elected president of the national Democratic 
convention in St. Louis in 1888 compares favorably with any ad- 
dress made upon a similar occasion. 

After his admission to the bar his advance, step by step, from 
one place of responsibility and honor to another was natural and 
apparently easy, though there may have been more labor in it 
than appears on the surface. His public career as member of the 
Massachusetts General Court four years, as member of Congress 
six years, as Consul-general representing the United States in Lon- 
don for four years, and as mayor of this city for nearly the same 
period is a remarkable record for a man dying at the age of sixty- 
one, when you consider the cramped conditions of the first twenty. 
Especially do we know and appreciate with what success and gen- 
eral approval he performed the difficult and varied duties of chief 
executive officer of this city, the termination of which by death is 
now so sincerely and generally deplored. In his last election as 
mayor he had the support of many citizens who did not agree with 
him on some political questions ; and this support was, of course, 
an advantage to him ; he had secured it, not by delusive promises 



igS LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

which he could not keep, but he had earned it by meritorious 
performance. 

The citizens of Boston had learned by experience that they 
could trust him, and they intrusted him with their most precious 
possession — the well-being and good name of their city — and 
to the trust he was faithful "unto the end." 

In his last inaugural address to the City Council, referring to 
their official obligations, he said, "Our contract is with the city 
of Boston, not with any subdivision of it, and not with any polit- 
ical party." To his faithful adherence to that obligation, which 
is now generally acknowledged, was due the success of his adminis- 
tration. 

If I should be asked to state in a few words the dominant quality 
of the character of General Colhns, I should describe it as a natural, 
unaffected, independent integrity. With it he had courage, for- 
titude, patience, sagacity, and a devoted loyalty to the things which 
he beUeved made life useful and honorable, and with these also he 
had a pleasant manner, affability, kindness and a large sympathy. 
He differed, as every strong man often differs, from other able men 
on public questions. Some of his vetoes while mayor were not, 
of course, approved by everybody, but nobody ever questioned 
his sincerity or his honesty in respect to them. You and I know 
what opportunities the great powers of the mayor of this city afford 
for thrift, but nobody ever had a suspicion that Mayor Collins 
was actuated by any personal or sinister motive in the conduct of 
the business of that office. I have been informed that he died 
comparatively poor. Formerly it would not have been thought 
necessary to say that a man in such an office was honest, but now, 
if half is true of what is said concerning a prevaihng insatiable 
greed for money, it may be that "to be honest is to be one man 
picked out of ten thousand." 

General Collins had a large capacity for friendships and a corre- 
sponding loyalty to them. His heart, like those of many others 
from his native land, went out in sympathy to her in her misfor- 
tunes and distress, which he beheved to be undeserved and unjust ; 
but this did not diminish his loyalty to his adopted country — the 
country which had affectionately adopted him. I suspect that to 
England he was an Irishman ; but I know that to America he was 
an American. In a speech in Albany in July, 1884, he said: 
"Those of us who were born in Ireland or spring from the Irish 
race are here to stay. Whatever our affihations, ties, or affections 
may be in American politics, we are Americans pure and simple. 
We ask nothing on account of race or creed, and we submit to no 
slight or injury on account of either. We and our children and 
our children's children are here merged in this great free composite 
nationality, true and loyal citizens of the State and Federal system, 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 199 

sharing in the burdens and blessings of the freest people on earth. 
All we ask is equality for us and ours. He who demands more, 
or takes less, is no true American." 

Why is it that his death a few weeks ago caused such sincere 
and general sorrow? Why is it that you are here, from so many 
different calhngs and pursuits, representing so many diverse opin- 
ions in politics and creeds in rehgion, so many different races and 
nationalities? Why is it that you are joining together in these 
tributes to his memory? It is not, I believe, merely to deplore 
the untimely termination of the career of a good lawyer; not 
merely to express regret for the inopportune ending of the term 
of a high office which he held. Is it not rather because you then 
felt something has been lost to humanity? Is it not that some- 
thing in you, common to mankind, has been tenderly touched by 
that which makes the whole world kin? 

You think of him as more than a lawyer, and as something 
greater than the holder of a high office by as much as you believe 
that the spirit is greater than the temple, and the character of the 
man superior to the things, or record of the things, that he did. 

It is a consolation to know that he lived to see that his work and 
endeavors to perform his duty brought to him a recognition by 
the community in which he lived, and to some degree, at least, the 
compensation which he had earned — the respect, the honor, and 
the esteem of his fellow-men — which I think was the compensa- 
tion which he most valued ; and though we mourn we rejoice, also, 
in the possession of the lesson of his hfe, which will remain long 
after these exercises have passed from the memory of living men. 

Let the record which you desire here be made, where it will 
endure, and where it may be read ; so will other youth struggling 
with poverty be cheered ; worthy ambition stimulated ; fidelity to 
duty receive fresh encouragement; and a new inspiration given 
to patriotic purpose and endeavor. 



CHAPTER XIV 

The City's Memorial — Official Recognition given to the Memory 
OF Mr. Collins — Addresses by Thomas J. Gargan, Rabbi Fleis- 
cher, Commander Wolff of the G. A. R., General Bartlett, 
AND Others. 

UNDER authority of a joint resolution of the City 
Council of Boston, approved by the acting mayor, 
the Hon. Daniel A. Whelton, on September 30, 1905, 
a memorial service was held at Tremont Temple on the 
evening of Wednesday, December 20, to commemorate the 
life and public services of the late mayor of the city, the Hon. 
Patrick A. Collins. Alderman John E. Baldwin, chairman 
of the joint special committee representing the City Council, 
opened the exercises by inviting the Rev. Peter Ronan, pas- 
tor of St. Peter's Church, Dorchester, to offer prayer. In 
invoking the Divine blessing, Father Ronan spoke as 
follows : — 

With the remembrance, O Lord, of the blessings vouchsafed to 
our beloved city through its late lamented Chief Magistrate, we 
come into Thy presence on this solemn occasion, and with grateful 
hearts we thank Thee for blessings received. In Thy infinite 
wisdom Thou hast taken from the walks of life a faithful public 
servant, and Thou hast called him to the reward of his 
stewardship in Thy vineyard. While deeply lamenting our great 
loss, we bow our heads in humble submission to Thy Divine will. 

Diffuse, O Lord, throughout this community a knov^ledge of 
the virtues of Thy public servant — his sterling honesty, his un- 
sullied integrity, his patriotic devotion, and his generous love for 
his adopted country. 

Thou, O God, w^ho art the King of kings and the Lord of lords, 
and the final Judge of the rulers of this world, impress, we beseech 
Thee, upon the hearts of Thy public servants the supreme impor- 
tance of a loyal and a faithful compliance with duty, to the end that 
they may be true to Thee, true to the voice of conscience, and true 
to the sacred trust confided to their keeping. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 201 

Bless, O Lord, our beloved city and all who dwell therein. 
Raise up worthy rulers, who shall wisely guide her great destiny, 
as did Thy faithful pubHc servant whose memory we honor this 
evening. 

Protect, we beseech Thee, O Lord, our thoughts and our words 
on this important occasion, so that they may tend to Thy greater 
glory and honor, and to the permanent good of Thy people. Grant 
unto us, O Lord, these our humble petitions, through Christ our 
Redeemer. Amen. 

Address by the Acting Mayor 

At the close of the prayer, Alderman Baldwin introduced 
Acting Mayor Whelton as permanent chairman of the 
meeting. In assuming the chair, Mr. Whelton said : — 

We are assembled to-night to honor the memory of a man who 
won his place in the community by ability, integrity, and the highest 
character. The city which he served with distinction and with 
subUme fideUty pays its formal tribute to his worth through the 
agency of the legislative branch of the government. The distin- 
guished gentlemen who will address you represent the great com- 
posite citizenship of this metropolis, and they will express in ornate 
phrase the sentiments of the community. To me is allotted the 
honorable but sad duty of directing the proceedings which will be 
written upon the city's records and handed down to posterity. 

It was my privilege to serve for two years as a member of the 
government of which, for nearly four years, Mr. Collins was the 
executive head, and I can testify to his singleness of purpose in 
the discharge of the high and difficult duties which incumbency of 
that great office imposes. His death, which was a distinct and 
irreparable loss to the city, imposed those duties upon me. In dis- 
charging them I have always held before me the lofty example of 
his hfe and the inspirations of his noble qualities as a man and a 
pubhc official. 

Every young man who is striving to rise above harsh and un- 
favorable circumstances and to win a place among those who 
deserve well of their fellows because of public service honestly 
performed, may take courage as he reads the story of Patrick A. 
ColHns's life, of his struggles against adverse conditions, and of his 
self-elevation to a foremost place among the men of his generation 
who have guided the repubhc upon a safe course. 

The city honors herself in honoring him, and I count it a high 
if sombre and sorrowful privilege to be associated with this expres- 
sion of an official tribute to his character and achievements. 



202 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Ode by M. J. Dwyer 

Mr. M. J. Dwyer, Assistant District Attorney, next read 
the following ode written by himself for the occasion : — 

Justly waft we o'er his tomb the incense of our praise 
Uplifting his long-cherished name on Love's wings to the skies. 
Justly we from grieving hearts our strains of sorrow raise 
For all the world is poorer when a great and good man dies. 

Yet comes not always Death to men in cold and cruel guise 
Of fell Oblivion's endless pall. Betimes its dreaded knell 
Strikes but the timely hour of God, that gilds and glorifies 
With surer reverence and fame life's deeds accompUshed well. 

Whom here we mourn with solemn dirge and eulogy sublime 
The kindher Voice of Destiny but called, with wiser ken. 
To prouder homage and renown upon the scroll of Time, 
To more enduring life and love in inmost hearts of men. 

Rich were all his days in deeds and aims of high emprise, 

Of all of Life by instinct true he chose the better part ; 

Nor thought, nor word, nor daily act, but proved in all men's eyes 

The innermost aspirings of a Truth-inspired heart. 

True son of Nature, rich endowed with rarest gift and charm 
Of Mother Nature's largess, — ample mind and sparkUng grace 
Of thought and speech, — his heart aglow, his spirit kind and 

warm, — 
Proclaimed the shining heritage and genius of his race. 

Amid these scenes through toil and stress of weary, fameless years 
He labored upward and alone to high predestined goal; 
In struggle patient, bold and strong, and void of weakHng fears. 
Self-poised in conscious knowledge of the power within his soul. 

'Tis said our age is sordid ; men are base, and Gold is God ; 
That venal spirits rule where worth and merit should abide ; 
But he was One by conscience swayed, whose feet in honor trod 
The devious ways of Office, stern Integrity his guide. 

His soul aflame with impulse caught from Honor's sacred fire 
He sought the heights of truest worth and usefulness to scan. 
Embracing as his own Life's noblest objects of desire 
He made, and loved, and hved his law: "In all an upright man !" 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 203 

His too the patriot's dauntless heart, unchained, unawed, unbought ! 
The pulse to feel, the will to claim, the tongue to champion Right ! 
To lift oppression from mankind his lifelong dearest thought, 
That all men might be freemen in God's Liberty and Light ! 

Still is now the faithful heart that throbbed for Truth and Right, 
And mute the voice that spake with fire in every noble cause; 
Prone the form that stood a giant power in all men's sight 
For Freedom, Justice, Honesty, Humanity's great laws ! 

Yet shall he live in all he wrought, by precept speaking still; 
And long as noble deeds our souls with love and pride imbue, 
His name beloved shall fill our hearts with fond, inspiring thrill 
To live Uke him for greater ends, brave, loyal, just, and true. 

O noble Hfe ! whose sorrowing end but brings to clearer view 
A city's loss, a race's grief, a people's love sincere ! 
Auspicious death ! Which in our souls but shrines that life anew, 
A life to love and follow, a rare memory revere ! 



Eulogy by the Hon. Thomas J. Gargan 

The Acting Mayor: Ladies and gentlemen, I am about 
to call upon the first speaker of the evening, a man who was 
associated with General Collins, who knew him well — the 
sole survivor of the old Four Club, if I remember rightly; 
a man who appreciated his work — General Collins' s in- 
timate friend and personal associate, the Hon. Thomas J. 
Gargan. (Applause.) 

Mr. Gargan said : — 

Mr. Mayor, Ladies and Gentlemen : It is peculiarly fitting and 
appropriate that this memorial meeting to honor the late Mayor 
Colhns should be held in Tremont Temple, for it was in this place 
and upon this platform that, on a memorable occasion, he de- 
clared that he was "no man's man and wore no man's collar," and 
that was the keynote of his whole character. 

As I look about me in this gathering and see so many of his 
friends, it is difficult for me to reahze that he will not step forward 
and thrill us as of yore. Yet we feel that if he is not visibly present, 
his spirit hovers over us. 

The presence here of this large assemblage proves the strength 
of your love and devotion to the memory of Patrick A. Collins. 
You all respected and loved him. We feel that a tower has fallen, 



204 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

a star has set. While we mourn for him, in thousands of homes 
and .cabins in this land, on the other side of the Atlantic sympa- 
thetic hearts are mourning with us to-night. I loved him as a dear 
friend, a companion and associate for almost forty years. How 
can I hope to find words to utter what our hearts feel ! 

I desire to speak to you of him as he would wish me were he 
living and present. I know he would say, "Speak of me as you 
know me, 'nothing extenuate nor set down aught in mahce,'" I 
do not claim that he was perfect, nor shall I dwell upon his imper- 
fections; he was "bound in the bonds, which all men share." 
Yet view him as we may, the Lion's mark was always there. We 
loved him because he was a great, human, lovable man, yet what 
we say here to-day cannot avail the dead. 

We have sung his requiem ; in the bright sunlight of an autumn 
day we committed his body to mother earth, and to many of us 
the world seems lonesome since. These tributes which we offer 
are not for the dead, but for the living. These expressions and 
memorial exercises elevate those from whom they emanate; they 
cause us to pause in our struggle for wealth and honors, and Uft 
us to a higher world of thought. If the surroundings here, these 
exercises, the strains of music, the communion of thought between 
those who knew the usefulness and nobility of our friend's life, 
shall plant the seed of an emotion that will fructify and ripen into 
nobler actions, we may congratulate ourselves upon a well-spent 
day. 

What an inspiration and example for us all in the life of this poor 
Irish immigrant boy, who began his career so humbly in this city 
without friends, without fortune, yet by his perseverance, his 
magnetism, his tact, and by his indomitable industry, became chief 
magistrate of this great city ! It seems like a tale from the Arabian 
Nights, as if the magician came with his lamp and ring and did it 
all, yet we know the magician was none other than Patrick A. 
CoUins himself, and his tahsman, like that of every other man that 
has achieved anything in life, was hard, persistent work and in- 
dustry. 

I first met him in the enchanting garden of youth, and it was 
there he introduced me to his youthful friend, John Boyle O'Reilly. 
As we left its portals with high ideals, we hoped to conquer success 
and to make the wide world, whose roadway we entered, a little 
better. We found the way often rough and stony, we did not 
escape some mire, and were often wearied in spirit and body. His 
cheery voice and companionship were always encouraging, and he 
never lost faith. How well he succeeded, the future historian of 
Boston will tell. 

We are perhaps too near him fully to appreciate him, or to meas- 
ure him justly. In early life we entered the Legislature together. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 205 

I remember that early in the session, a small-type member of the 
House and of our party made a trade on some matter and pledged 
the Democratic vote. It was to my mind a corrupt measure. I 
invited Collins to luncheon. When he came into the room he said, 
"I know what you want; and you and I cannot be traded like 
sheep at the shambles by such a trickster." This incident gave 
me the first insight into his character. He hated shams and was 
incorruptibly honest, and I felt sure that the gilded hand of corrup- 
tion would never dare to offer him a friendly grasp. I was in 
Washington when he was a member of Congress, and knew him 
to refuse a fee of ten thousand dollars as counsel in a certain case, 
at a time when that amount of money was to him a small fortune. 
Many members of the bar at that day and to-day would have 
thought it not improper to accept that fee, but he had a high stand- 
ard of ethics. He believed his first duty was to his country and 
his constituents. His oath of office was to him no idle or unmean- 
ing ceremony, and he had that high sense of honor that feels a stain 
like a wound. This was not the only instance; other insidious 
attempts were made to approach this incorruptible man. He 
might have died rich if he sullied his honor, but there was that in 
his manner and being that plainly said, "Get thee behind me, 
Satan!" 

As I sat in his office in St. Helen's Place, in London, one day 
while he was Consul-general, I could not help recalling Haw- 
thorne's story of his consular experience. Numberless were the 
calls made upon ColHns, not only by Americans, but by all nation- 
aHties. He listened to their tales of woe with patience and sym- 
pathy. All went away comforted and many received substantial 
aid from the private purse of this great-hearted man. 

As mayor of Boston, his record is known to you all. On public 
occasions he represented the city with honor and dignity. He was 
accessible to the humblest citizen, ready to listen to advice, yet 
always acting on his own judgment. He could say "No" with 
great firmness when necessary, and every taxpayer paying a dollar 
into the city treasury, knew that he would guard its expenditure 
as strictly and economically as any trustee or guardian of private 
funds. His messages and vetoes were models in their terseness 
and precision. He was strong to do the right thing, because it 
was the right thing. He did his duty fearlessly, never stopping to 
count personal consequences. Through all his life he believed 
with Plato that "Justice is the health of the State." 

To sum up briefly his hfe and character : While he was thoroughly 
American, he passionately loved the land of his birth, he contributed 
liberally from his means, and gave to her cause all his splendid 
abilities. As he said on one occasion, "I love Ireland as I love my 
mother, and I love America as I do my wife." He was faithful 



2o6 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

to duty, incorruptibly honest ; he possessed magnetism, tact, and 
breadth of view, and he placed a higher value upon character than 
upon success. 

He was a conscientious lawyer, a careful legislator, an efficient 
Consul-general, and an able Mayor ! As an orator, he had the 
essential requisites: a good voice, a noble presence, that inde- 
finable temperament of the Celt that moves and convinces, force 
of character, the humor and pathos that called forth smiles or 
tears as he willed ; he could wreathe the iron bar of logic with the 
flowers of rhetoric and carry conviction to the minds of his hearers, 
because they believed there was an earnest man behind all his words. 

While many men who pose as statesmen believe their party to 
be mankind, Collins had the faculty of hfting himself to a higher 
altitude, obtaining a clearer view and a broader horizon, and in 
that horizon he embraced humanity. 

He beheved with the poet that — 

"Where'er a single slave doth pine, 
Where'er one man may help another, 
Thank God for such a birthright, brother. 
That spot of earth is thine and mine ! 
There is the true man's birthplace grand, 
His is a world-wide fatherland ! " 

His early beginning was much like that of Lincoln, and as Lin- 
coln's great speech at Gettysburg, of twenty lines, has become a 
classic and will Hve, so Colhns's short eulogy of O'Reilly will be the 
gem that will long survive his other utterances. 

Yet those who knew him in public life only did not know him at 
his best. It was at the table, surrounded by six or seven intellec- 
tual men that he appeared to the best advantage ; it was in the 
freedom of unrestrained intercourse that you began to know and 
appreciate him. His education was not of the kind that knows 
a little Latin and less Greek, soon forgotten in the tumult of busy 
life. His wide range of reading, particularly of history and biog- 
raphy, his knowledge of pubhc men and pubhc affairs, surprised 
you. Across the table, where every man could give and take, he 
received a sharp thrust without rancor and with rare good humor. 

Alas, — he has passed from our mortal ken ! Farewell, dear 
friend, never again shall we see your stalwart form walking the 
streets of this city which you loved so well ! Never again shall we 
hear your cheery voice or feel the warm grasp of your friendly 
hand ! 

You have passed into the dim valley and shadow of death, but 
oh ! how many fragrant and precious memories you have be- 
queathed to us ! Such men never wholly die, for "The memorial 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 207 

of virtue is immortal," because "it is known with God and with 
men. When it is present, men take example at it ; when it is gone, 
they desire it ; it weareth a crown and triumpheth forever, having 
gotten the victory striving for undefiled rewards." 

The people of this city who loved him so well propose to erect 
in some pubhc place a memorial more lasting than our perishable 
words. There it will stand to remind us of the story and fidelity 
to duty of this poor Irish immigrant boy ! 

Let those who are incHned to despair of government by the people 
not lose hope, when they reflect that into this great crucible of our 
Democracy are poured so many elements, and when we separate 
the dross and alloy, we produce such refined metal and such a 
type of manhood as this monument will commemorate. The 
coming generations, as they look upon it, will receive new inspira- 
tion, and they will realize that not merely the acquisition of money 
but the path of Duty is the way to honor and glory. 

Build it, then, of granite and of bronze ; it cannot be more endur- 
ing than his virtues. Let the genius of the sculptor give it form 
and beauty ; it cannot be more beautiful or nobler than his character. 

Yet even this monument may moulder and crumble into dust, 
but so long as we shall maintain the institutions and government 
which made his career possible, and so long as we shall maintain 
the character of our civic government upon the high standards 
which he set, we secure and perpetuate the fame of Patrick A. 
Collins. 

Eulogy by Rabbi Charles Fleischer 

The Acting Mayor: Ladies and gentlemen, it now gives 
me great pleasure to introduce to you the Rabbi Charles 
Fleischer, an old and warm personal friend of Mayor Collins. 
(Applause.) 

Rabbi Fleischer said : — 

Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen: How I envied Mr. 
Gargan the privilege of hfelong acquaintance with so worthy a 
man, and how I envied him besides that diamond-tipped 
tongue which could give such brilliant utterance to the im- 
pressions of a hfetime. And yet, as I hstened and compared 
these generation-old impressions of Mr. Gargan with my compara- 
tively brief ones of the same man, I could not help but reahze that 
the arc of a circle, however small it may be, tells practically the 
story of the entire circle. For, as Mr. Gargan knew Patrick A. 
ColHns in the large, so I knew him in the httle, and the Uttle that 
I knew of him, comparatively speaking, talHes quite with the large 
that Mr. Gargan knew of him. 



2o8 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

I do not want to indulge here to-night in fulsome eulogy of Mr. 
ColHns. I do not want to extenuate any of his faults or short- 
comings. I do not want to exaggerate the worth of the man. 
But such as he was, such qualities as were his, I want here, as one 
who appreciates manhood, to commend. We are none of us so 
very good ; on the other hand, there are no bad men, even as there 
are no good men. All of us are mixtures of good, bad, and indiffer- 
ent quahties. If there need be any reason for making us human 
beings sympathetic with one another, this one touch of human 
nature ought to make us wondrous kind. 

With the late Colonel Ingersoll, I feel that it were better if we gave 
one another "more taffy, and less epitaphy," — that is to say, if 
we were more appreciative of people while they lived and told 
them frankly our appreciation, and were less prone to giving them 
posthumous praise. Therefore, I do not believe in fulsome 
eulogies, and, to be quite frank, I take part only reluctantly in 
these or any other memorial exercises. 

As for Patrick A. Collins, no one will claim complete saintship 
for him ; while on the other hand, he needs not death's charitable 
mantle to hide his faults and make us aware of his many great and 
good qualities. Of these I want to select but one, to place as an im- 
mortelle upon his grave. I refer to the same quality which Mr. Gar- 
gan has already so fully appreciated, — the essential humanness of 
the man. I do not mean the humanness to which we refer when we 
say, trying to palHate or excuse the shortcomings of a man, that 
"He is but human"; but I mean that greater, finer, subtler thing 
that I call humanness, a subtle quality indeed, but the finest flower 
of our human nature. I mean a temperamental love of human 
kind — a love of human kind temperamental in some, but which 
may in all be cultivated. 

I cannot choose but be the preacher whenever I speak, and I 
use General Collins herein as my text and my theme. I want to 
commend his humanness ; I want to hold up to admiration and to 
emulation that fine quality. I must say that I do not feel, as do 
most of those who eulogize the departed, that I ought to indulge 
in mourning or in pubHc grief. I thank God for every great and 
good man and woman that ever has lived. I would rather, after 
their physical departure, be grateful for their having lived than 
mourn the fact that they are no more. I believe that when such 
a one dies he is not as a star that has set, but rather as a star that 
has been fixed in the illimitable ether; not as a tower that has 
fallen, but rather as a tower that stands forever, bidding men look 
up and live likewise. And those who achieve success in this par- 
ticular regard, in this quahty of humanness, this power of loving 
their fellow- men and making that love an ever present and an ever 
active quality, are the nobles of the earth. 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 209 

In large measure, I found, from my experience and from my 
definite impression of the man, that Patrick A. Collins possessed 
this loveliest of human traits, the same abundant kindliness which 
enabled Bobbie Burns to exclaim : — 

"A man's a man for a' that, 
The rank is but the guinea's stamp 
The man's the govvd for a' that." 

That same democratic, intensely, broadly human instinct once 
led Collins to answer a sectarian and partisan appeal with this 
rebuke, "I am an American first, then a Democrat, and then a- 
Cathohc." 

Indeed, he proved more than once that he held Man, writ large, 
to be the largest and most inclusive title, a sort of human family 
label, the others only Christian names, as it were. I remember how, 
expressing that same humanness, that love of his kind, he stood 
on this platform a little more than a year ago, giving welcome on 
behalf of the city of Boston to the estimable representatives of the 
peace societies of the world, and I remember how in characteristic 
fashion he introduced the occasion. He said something to this 
effect, — that a man may, for private purposes, formulate his own 
religion ; that he may use the already formulated creeds and teach- 
ings to his own end ; that, therefore, he took the liberty of paraphras- 
ing two of the beatitudes, — and I remember that he paraphrased 
them in such a way as to shock the orthodox, the conservative 
and the radical, alike, until at last they caught the meaning of his 
genial wit, and all laughed with him. He said: — 

" Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the chil- 
dren of God ; and cursed be the war-makers, for they shall see the 
devil." (Laughter.) 

Herein, then, in this quaUty of fine, loving humanness, I find 
Patrick A. Colhns an example particularly worthy of commenda- 
tion, — a devout sectarian, a loyal partisan, a patriotic nationahst, 
but, first and foremost, a genial and congenial Man. (Applause.) 



Tribute from General Charles H. Taylor 

General Charles H. Taylor, editor and proprietor of the 
Boston Globe said : — 

It has been my happy privilege to know three men of Irish birth 
who did much to promote and establish, on the sound basis of 
mutual respect and confidence, a good understanding between 
the peoples of difi"erent races dwelHng in Boston, in Massachusetts, 



2IO LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

and in New England. Others have contributed their share, but 
these three were my friends, and, therefore, I can bear witness to 
what Patrick Donahoe, John Boyle O'Reilly, and Patrick A. Col- 
lins did for this good cause, how out of their love for their fellow- 
men an enduring bridge was wrought and thrown across the old 
chasm of misunderstanding. 

Donahoe was the business man, and his honorable deaUng, 
courtly manners, and handsome person left a lasting impression 
in business circles. 

O'Reilly, the poet, won by his gifts an honored place among 
men of letters and sang his way into all our hearts. 

Collins was the lawyer, the orator, the pubhc man. By his 
legal talents he gained the esteem of bench and bar; through his 
native eloquence he became a popular favorite all over the country ; 
his sane and ready judgment on pohtical questions made him the 
compeer of the leading statesmen of his time; his stern integrity 
secured for him the confidence, while his gentle Irish wit enlisted 
the affections, of all our people. 

This community which he loved and served so well was united 
in its admiration of Patrick A. ColHns living. We all remember 
how completely it was united in its mourning for him dead, how 
rich and poor, how races and creeds and parties were fused and 
welded in a common sorrow for a loss that seemed personal to every 
one in all the city. 

He was a manly man among manly men, and filled the public 
positions to which he was called with high honor and in a manner 
which reflected credit upon his city, his state, his country, his 
party, and his friends. (Applause.) 

Eulogy by James H. Wolff, Esq. 

The Acting Mayor: Ladies and gentlemen, it is now my 
privilege to introduce to you the Department Commander 
of the Grand Army of the Republic, of Massachusetts, 
James H. Wolfif, Esq. 

Mr. Wolff said : — 

Mr. Chairman and Fellow- citizens: I am here this evening, 
not to pronounce a fulsome eulogy upon the Ufe and character of 
our late distinguished fellow-citizen. Mayor Patrick A. CoUins, 
but to add my tribute of respect to his memory, as the representa- 
tive of the Grand Army of the RepubHc. He was one of the 
strongest friends the veteran soldier ever had in the Mayoralty 
chair of the city of Boston. 

It was my privilege to have met Mr. Collins nearly thirty years 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 211 

ago. I remember my introduction to him in the old Court-house, 
the year that I was admitted to the bar. As I came down from 
the upper court, in company with the man in whose office the mayor 
had started as a boy, I was introduced to him. He grasped my 
hand with a warmth that made me feel the impulse of a great 
warm heart, and with a smile, he said, "Set your mark high in 
your chosen profession and strive to reach it;" and I fully reaUzed 
that he himself had placed his mark high and was then struggUng 
to reach it. 

There is an Indian proverb which says, "Speak, that I may 
know you." When he had spoken to me for the first time, I knew 
that he was a man of great kindness of heart, that his sympathies 
with man and men were large and broad, that he had a kindly 
face and a cordial greeting. 

Mr. Chairman, I fully realize that our Hves are not always 
easy, nor our paths of peace. We meet with disappointments, 
and sometimes our hopes are baffled ; but no obstacles or difficul- 
ties could withstand or overcome his great will-power. He was a 
man of great force of character, a man who was determined to 
reach the goal at all hazards. From the moment that I met him 
I became interested in him. I watched his career at the bar and 
also in the national House of Representatives, and I saw him 
steadily move upward and onward, until at last he reached the 
crowning summit of his ambition, when he finally became mayor 
of the city of Boston, with the approval of all pohtical parties. 

I said to him on one occasion, during a stormy struggle in the 
House: "Mr. Collins, it seems to me that we are growing some- 
what narrow in our Republic. It seems to me that there are 
shadows crossing the pathway of the American people." He 
looked at me and said: "Why, it is only the preparation for a 
greater and a nobler RepubHc. There are no shadows in our 
pathway, but it is illuminated with the glory and the heroism of 
the statesmanship and the soldiery of our land." 

As I viewed him, it seemed to me that he demonstrated in his 
person more fully than any other man I ever knew the possibili- 
ties of the youth of our Republic, regardless of race, creed, or 
religion. Coming here as a youth, to a strange land, he was able 
to so implant himself in the hearts of the people as to reach the 
highest office in the city of Boston. 

I always looked upon Mr. Coffins as a man of extraordinary 
powers. Whatever he undertook to do was thoroughly and 
accurately done. He also believed that character was more 
powerful than wealth; therefore, no man ever assailed his in- 
tegrity as a man. 

I heard him speak often. He was a magnificent orator, with 
remarkable persuasive powers. I remember on one occasion 



212 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

I heard him in one of our courts, in the trial of a cause, and it 
seemed to me that his eloquence thrilled the whole court room, 
and scarcely had he ceased speaking when he was surrounded 
and congratulated by the members of the bar. I always looked 
upon him as one of the finest types of orators that this country 
has produced. I am not sure that he studied the Athenian ora- 
tors very closely; but I have come to the conclusion that he was 
a fine type of the Athenian orator. 

Yet, as Burke exclaimed on one occasion, "What shadows we 
are and what shadows we pursue ! ' My fellow- citizens, gath- 
ered here to-night we bow in reverence and mourn the loss of 
this distinguished citizen. We here commemorate his virtues and 
pay tribute to his great achievements, both in state and nation. 
We are grateful in the consolation that his race and the world are 
better because he lived. 

There is one thing that all men may know : that they should 
follow the great precepts of the Creator as a guide, in their fidehty 
to the teachings of Him when he speaketh: "To the dead he 
sayeth, 'Arise.' To the living, 'Follow me.' And that voice 
still soundeth on from centuries that are gone to the centuries 
that shall be." (Applause.) 

Tribute from President Pritchett 

Henry S. Pritchett, LL.D., president of the Institute of Tech- 
nology, wrote from Virginia : I regret extremely that an unavoid- 
able absence from Boston prevents my presence at the meeting 
called in memory of the services and the hfe of the late Mayor 
Collins. I esteem it an honor and a privilege to have known 
Mayor Collins, and I should be glad to add my testimony to that 
of other citizens in appreciation of his integrity of character, his 
courage, and his high-minded attitude toward pubUc questions. 
In addition, those who came to know him personally can never 
forget his genial nature, his uprightness, and his faithfulness to 
his friendships. We have lost a citizen and a friend whom we 
cannot replace, and whose memory we shall always hold dear. 

Address of Charles W. Bartlett 

General Charles W. Bartlett was the last speaker of the 
evening. His speech was as follows : — 

Mr. Mayor and friends of General Collins: I have listened to 
words of eulogy, I have heard Mr. ColHns idealized, I have heard 
words of praise, words of deep feeling, and the thought occurred 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 213 

to me, "What more can I add in a tribute to General Collins to 
that which has already been said by our friends who addressed 
you before my turn came?" I had thought of various things to 
say. I am not here to deliver an address, and what I have to say 
to you briefly will be in the nature of a talk, while paying my feeble 
tribute to the memory of Mr. Colhns as the Chief Magistrate of 
this city and as my almost Hfelong friend. 

It is almost incredible to beheve that we never again shall see 
his tall form and striking features passing through our streets 
and into our pubhc buildings. His kindly greeting and that 
sweet smile which always marked him, brought to him friends 
and Unked those friends to him by a kind of magnetism which 
was one of the chief characteristics of his make-up. 

In the performance of his duty times would come when un- 
pleasant decisions had to be arrived at, and when a petitioner 
presented to him any question, quickly, with almost unerring 
precision, that clear and able mind would strike the point of just 
what was asked for. If it could be granted, and the petitioner 
displayed his joy, Patrick A. ColHns joined with him and would 
express upon those mobile features his delight at being able to 
grant the request ; but when he felt that the petition was in any 
way unjust or that it in any way affected adversely the interests 
of the people he had in charge, that firm jaw would indicate at 
once what the decision would be. I have seen that face expressing 
the deepest sorrow at such times, but his inflexible regard for his 
duty would see that justice was done. (Applause.) 

Something has been said about fulsome words of eulogy. There 
is a good deal in that remark. We would better tell the truth 
when we are talking of our friends and paying tribute to their 
memory, because sometimes the things that are said tend toward 
satiety. In addition to the characteristics that he had as a pubhc 
officer, I would like to speak of P. A. ColHns as a friend. The 
first time I ever met him in his law office, do you suppose that 
there was grief? Do you suppose there was a lodge of sorrow 
formed there? Not by any means. (Laughter.) I can remem- 
ber that sitting on his desk was an owl. He said to me, calling 
me by my first name, "That was presented to me by John Boyle 
O'Reilly as my silent partner." (Laughter.) It was in that vein 
always that I knew him. I am going to risk one other thing, even if 
this is a solemn occasion, in one sense, for I think if Brother Colhns 
were here, he would enjoy the bringing back to his mind of this 
httle incident. You remember that he met with a httle rebuff 
when he first ran for mayor. I saw him after his election, the 
second time that he ran, and I said to him, "What made you go 
after this thing again?" He said, "I dishke very much to form 
the habit of getting beaten." (Laughter.) 



214 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

I knew him as a lawyer, tried cases with him and against him, and 
his chief characteristic as an advocate was his absolute fairness. 
At no time or place was his conduct of a case marked by any 
cheap tricks. You knew when you were there that he was around, 
taking care of his interests; but in taking care of them he was 
absolutely fair, and he so carried on his contest in behalf of his 
clients as to protect their proper, legal, and just rights. 

You can readily see that, meeting him as a friend, meeting him 
as an attorney, meeting him as a pubHc official, and finding him 
at all times characterized by sterling integrity, undertaking to 
do that which was absolutely right, absolutely truthful, Patrick A. 
Collins would grow on a man as time went by. 

In the community we speak of a man's reputation. Reputa- 
tion is what men say of a man. You will also hear the expression, 
"the character of a man." Sometimes reputation does not repre- 
sent the man, but character does, and those who were nearest to 
Patrick A. Collins had an opportunity to judge what the distinc- 
tion between reputation and character was. Character was 
what he was; reputation was what people said of him. That 
character he maintained. It was a character that he built up in 
his early life, and he maintained that character to the end; and 
that that was so I ask you to judge yourselves from this fact, that 
while Patrick A. Collins was the Chief Magistrate of the city of 
Boston the people of Boston, one and all, without regard to party 
or creed, felt safe. They had that innate feeling of safety that 
was based upon the character of the man. (Applause.) As 
time goes on that character will become better and more widely 
known, and in all the long list of those who have been before and 
of those who are to come, no name, in my judgment, will stand 
higher than that of Patrick A. Collins. (Applause.) 

Richard Olney, formerly Secretary of State in President 
Cleveland's Cabinet, Governor Douglas and Governor- 
elect Guild sent regrets and w^rote feelingly and appropri- 
ately of the life and services of the departed mayor. 

Benediction by Bishop Lawrence 

Bishop Lawrence, bishop of the Episcopal Church in Massa- 
chusetts, pronounced the benediction, as follows : — 

Unto God's gracious mercy and protection we commit you. 
The Lord bless and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine 
upon you, and be gracious unto you. The Lord lift up his counte- 
nance upon you and give you peace, both now and for evermore. 
Amen. 



APPENDIX 

SOME OF THE MORE NOTABLE PUBLIC ADDRESSES 
DELIVERED BY THE HON. PATRICK A. COLLINS, 
ON VARIOUS TOPICS OF CONTEMPORARY INTER- 
EST 



CHAPTER I 

A Plea for France— The Franco-Prussian War— What the French 
DID FOR America and what they attempted for Ireland. 

A FEW of the more notable speeches delivered by Mr. 
Collins during his public service are selected for pub- 
lication here. They cover a wide range of thought 
and study and will serve to show the versatility of his mind 
at various stages of his remarkable career. They will also 
demonstrate his intense love of human liberty, his devotion 
to Democratic principles, and his loyalty to his adopted 
country while not forgetting the land that bore him. 

In October, 1870, when it was evident that Bismarck's 
grip on France's throat was tightening, and when the 
obliteration of the French nation was seriously threatened 
both by foreign aggression and domestic disorder, a pub- 
lic meeting was held in Faneuil Hall, Boston, to express 
sympathy with the French people in their hour of trial and 
peril. Mr. Collins was at that time a state senator and 
twenty-six years of age. His prominence in public affairs 
was so marked even then that no popular movement of any 
magnitude was undertaken until his cooperation and advice 
had been secured by its promoters. It was peculiarly fitting 
that he should take a leading part in a public demonstration 
in favor of France. He was Irish and American and, to 
quote his own language, ''intensely both." He was quite 
familiar with the story of France's endeavor to aid the Irish 
revolutionists when there seemed to be a real revolutionary 
movement in progress. Nor did he forget or overlook the 
aid rendered to Washington when he appeared to be leading 
a forlorn hope against the armies of King George. It can 
be easily inferred, therefore, that he entered into the spirit of 
this meeting with enthusiasm, and that he gave freely of the 
best that was in him of deep sentiment and impassioned ora- 

217 



2i8 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

tory. In 1902 after the visit of the descendants of Rocham- 
beau and Lafayette to Boston, where they were entertained 
by Mr. Collins, as mayor of the city, the French government 
considered the propriety of enrolling him among the friends 
of France as an officer of the Legion of Honor. The address 
which he delivered in Faneuil Hall on October 8, 1870, was 
accorded serious consideration in determining finally the 
competency of his claims to such a distinction. That 
address, or as much of it as was preserved, is given here. 
On being introduced Mr. Collins spoke as follows : — 

Gentlemen : I thank you sincerely for your warm and generous 
greeting. Need I say that my feelings to-night are mingled with 
pain as well as pleasure. Pleasure I certainly feel that an oppor- 
tunity is presented to join my voice with yours in an expression of 
sympathy for a brave and generous people, battling against a 
powerful and relentless foe; and deep pain I must feel also, that 
there should be occasion for this demonstration, or necessity for 
any expression of our sentiments. We are here in this place, so 
hallowed by patriotic association, so sacred to the cause of human 
liberty, not to indulge in faint-hearted misgivings, or to turn our 
thoughts backward in despondency; but rather to speak with the 
strong voice of hope, and through the black clouds of the present 
behold the sunshine of the future. The victor of to-day is the 
routed fugitive of to-morrow; and from the walls of beleaguered 
Paris we may yet see the proud columns of the invaders hurled 
back to the Rhine, and across it, by the irresistible power of the 
free French people. But to-day, France, bafifled, deceived, and 
outnumbered in the field, appeals to the world, to the sympathies 
of mankind, for encouragement and assistance, while she prepares 
for the great, decisive struggle at the walls of the capital. 

Not in mere charity and compassion do we meet in this, the hour 
of France's trial, but in gratitude and love we cheer the people 
whose strong voice sounded clearly among the nations for us, whose 
brave hearts beat with ours, and whose arms were borne in the 
fight for freedom, when friends were few and the days were dark 
in the American revolution. More than ninety years ago, the 
people of this country cast off allegiance to Great Britain, pro- 
claimed their independence, and with trusting hearts appealed to 
God and mankind to help them in their struggle. In all the world 
no powerful voice was raised in their behalf but one — no nation 
but one answered their appeal. That voice was the voice of France, 
that nation was the one that now, in the changed circumstances of 
the world, stands pleading in distress. She was our friend when 
friends were scarce, and we sorely needed help; we should now 



APPENDIX 219 

be her friend, or America will stand before the world as a powerful 
confirmation of the maxim that "RepubUcs are ungrateful." By 
the aid of France the hberties of America were wrung from the 
unwilUng grasp of an EngHsh king. Without that aid Washington 
might now be classed with the heads of the Irish clans, the Maori 
chieftains, and the princes of Hindostan. He succeeded — they 
did not ; he was a patriot — they were rebels. Yet they fought 
for the same principle — success made all the difference. Had 
Washington failed, the world would recognize in him a heroic 
man who fought and failed — no more ; and England would set 
him down in her book of infamy as a wicked and rebellious sub- 
ject, who crossed and darkened the path of her grand civilization 
for a moment, and then was crushed as all such monstrous men 
should be ! But Washington stands to-day the central figure in 
the world's struggle for liberty; the eminent patriot, the noble 
repubhcan; and beside him stand the noble representatives of 
a magnanimous nation, the French Rochambeau and Lafayette. 
Throughout the world there were men who sympathized with 
America in the Revolution, and fought for her cause. All honor 
and praise to the Germans, the Poles, and other men who did it. 
But Steuben and DeKalb represented only themselves, while 
Lafayette and Rochambeau spoke for their country — for the 
whole French people. 

Into the late war France was forced, from her position in Europe, 
as surely as nation ever was forced. For centuries France had 
stood at the head of progress and civilization in Europe, whether 
under the Empire, the Repubhc, or the old Monarchy. The people, 
through all the changes, have had more or less influence on the 
government, and the nation has stood on the threshold of the 
Continent, liberal and democratic at heart always ; the champion 
of the weaker nations, a strong barrier against the interferences 
and aggressions of her powerful and unscrupulous neighbors. 
France, in the worst days of the Bourbons, would never have 
stolen kingdoms and trampled peoples as ruthlessly as Prussia 
has done; would never have joined the gang of royal thieves to 
crucify poor Poland. Her map of Europe is balanced and sym- 
metrical, with no distinctive peoples bound as vassals, with no 
nation's name blotted out in blood. 

But how came this war about? The people of Spain, tired of 
the pomp, expense, and extravagance of royalty, expelled their 
queen, and placed the government in the hands of certain men, 
who proclaimed a regency. The people wanted a republic; 
Prim and Serrano promised them a king. The eyes of WiHiam 
and his chancellor became fixed on the Spanish throne, and they 
concluded to foist one of their numerous little kinglings — Prince 
Leopold of Hohenzollern — on the people of Spain. The voice 



220 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

of the people was against it, but what was that to the champion 
of "divine right," to the arrogant victor of Sadowa? Europe was 
hushed ! Not a murmur of remonstrance from any quarter, till 
the voice of France rang clear and resonant, proclaiming that no 
German Prince should rule the Spanish people. So Imperial 
Bonaparte and Republican Castellar spoke together for France 
and Spain. Prince Leopold was withdrawn — Spain was saved 
the ignominy of a foreign ruler. But the negotiations were con- 
ducted with that overreaching intrigue and artful cunning, on the 
part of Prussia, which could not fail. France was obliged to 
declare war in order to afford the strategy of Von Moltke and the 
diplomacy of Von Bismarck a broader field in Europe. Prussia 
was ready, for she had been long preparing. France was not; 
she was entrapped into the struggle, and the thunderbolt of the 
Teuton was hurled upon her. Strange history for France has 
since been made. When the sword of the Emperor was laid at 
the feet of the German king at Sedan, the war should have ceased 
if the king and his chancellor were sincere. That surrender created 
complications those wily men did not foresee, and we find them 
very naturally abandoning their positions and in the flush of their 
proud victory demanding the complete degradation of France. 
Such a change in their demands is well in keeping with the tradi- 
tional policy of the robber nation. This German despot, whose 
shot and shell ruined the grandest old town in Europe, whose 
hordes of courageous vandals trampled every sacred thing in their 
march, proclaimed, forsooth, that he "fought for civiUzation ! " 

There was grim humor in that phrase, perhaps, for the royal 
robber fights for Alsace and Lorraine, and if he should succeed 
in taking them, he will have more "civiUzation" in his dominions 
than Germany ever had before. The highest type of civilization 
is not the butchery of war in the interest of royalty ; it is not seen 
in plundered cities and ruined churches; in mutilated statues and 
libraries destroyed. In short, the civiUzation of the nineteenth 
century is not represented by the flaming sword and the spiked 
helmet. He will not recognize Jules Favre, who went in the name 
of the government of France to treat with him, because he cannot 
bend from his dignity to recognize "a government of the streets." 
Now he recognizes Napoleon ; the Empire still exists for his pur- 
poses. "A government of the streets!" That phrase conveys 
its meaning clearly. All governments of the people are " gov- 
ernments of the streets," in the view of despots. This American 
repubUc of forty milUons of people has a "government of the 
streets," because we recognize not the "divine right of kings," 
but the divine right of the people, to rule. Whatever we may 
think of French character, whether we beUeve that people capable 
of self-government or not ; whether we call their government legal 



APPENDIX 221 

or illegal, we must accept it as a fact. It was not legal, probably, 
according to the constitution of the Empire ; neither was the Ameri- 
can Republic, proclaimed by the Declaration of Independence, legal 
according to the constitution of Great Britain. No revolution 
against established law and government can be legal; but it does 
not follow that it cannot be right ! The unity of the French people 
is a grand, lofty spectacle, and reminds one vividly of those days 
in ancient Rome, when "None were for a party, but all for the 
state." This is the government which, peacefully formed, in the 
agony of war, inherits the quarrel of the Empire. Those are 
the people who now, in an hour of gloom, are sternly preparing for 
a mighty shock. War, with all its horrors, is upon them. From 
the Rhine to the Seine there is a broad path of desolation ; cities 
in ashes, and millions homeless. We know what it means, for 
the South has seen it. Describing the wake of Sherman's army 
in the "March to the Sea," an American poet says: — 

"For behind they left a wailing, a terror, and a ban, 
And blazing cinders sailing, and houseless households wan; 
Wide zones of counties paling, and towns where maniacs ran ! " 

Thus must the path of the German victor appear, in the trampled 
land where his troopers have revelled for the last two months. The 
condition of France is an eloquent appeal to mankind, and America, 
at least, is under obligation to answer it. I love France and her 
people, because she has been the friend of the oppressed and the 
champion of progress. I love her as an Irish-American, because 
she has given a helping hand to the land of my birth, and nobly 
succored the country of my adoption. Let us assist her suffering 
people as best we can, and thus, in a degree, discharge our obli- 
gation. The war is no longer a quarrel of kings, but a battle 
between ideas. On the one side is the spiked helmet and the 
divine right of kings ; on the other the civilization of the nineteenth 
century and rights of the people. Between them we must choose, 
not in mere sympathy, but by practical aid and cooperation. 
However it may end, I shall take my stand with France, as the 
representative of Democracy in the old world. My voice shall be 
with Uberty — I hail the Republic. Let us, by your generous aid 
and frank encouragement, cheer the strugghng French, and show 
that we have gratitude for noble services rendered — that we 
remember our "friends in the day of our prosperity." (Immense 
applause.) 



CHAPTER II 

The Famous Albany Speech — Collins fully acquits Cleveland on 
ALL THE Charges preferred against Him — The Blaine Method 
OF Campaigning — The " Irish Vote " a Myth. 

FOLLOWING is the famous Albany speech, delivered 
at the capital of New York State in 1884, soon after 
the nomination of Grover Cleveland as the Demo- 
cratic candidate for the presidency. 

My Fellow-citizens: I esteem it a high honor to be in- 
vited to participate with you in this great demonstration. 

When last it was my privilege to stand here, eight years ago, 
we met to indorse the candidacy of a great statesman, whose 
character had so ripened, whose record was so written, and whose 
figure had so grown, in yonder Capitol, that the country called 
for service by him in the higher sphere of the presidency. That 
call was an honor to Samuel J. Tilden, but a greater honor to 
New York, and a lofty tribute to your school of statesmanship. 
(Cheers.) 

It is not out of season, and it never will be while honest men 
have memories, to denounce the foul crime by which the elect of 
the people were cheated out of their offices, and the Republic 
defrauded of their services. 

It is a crime which has never been condoned, and never will 
be forgiven, by the American people. 

Indeed, so intense is the feeling, and so universal the desire 
to right the wrong so far as the people can right it, that, in my 
judgment, no combination of men or circumstances could have 
prevented that great Chicago convention, with one acclaim, 
from nominating Tilden and Hendricks again (loud applause), 
if Mr. Tilden had not solemnly and emphatically refused consent. 

With the candor, dignity, and ability fitting his character in 
a letter fraught with wise counsel and sage reflection, our great 
leader took his leave, and bade us look elsewhere among our 
leading men for a candidate for that high office. 

It was a great body to whom the task of selection was committed. 
It represented the intelligence, enterprise, and wealth of more 



APPENDIX 



223 



than half the people of the United States; but, more than all, it 
represented the masses, the laboring people, — as the Democracy 
ever has, — with all their activities, purposes, and ambitions. 

From the calm judgment of that convention, unswayed by 
the clamor of the galleries, unmoved by open threats or whisper- 
ing conferences, came Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hen- 
dricks. (Applause.) 

Once more this great theatre of political action had produced 
the man for the time, and once more Indiana's chivalrous son 
loyally took the place to which his party assigned him. 

These are the only Democratic candidates that are, or that 
can be, in the field this year. They are our candidates if we 
are Democrats. I am, and always have been, a Democrat ; and, 
unless the Republican leopard can change its spots, a Democrat 
I remain. I therefore come to this initial meeting of the canvass 
to pledge my hearty support to the party and its candidates, and 
to join with you in congratulations on our coming victory at the 
polls. But I am conscious that no man does his duty to himself, 
or to his cause, who overlooks or sHghts obstacles in the path to 
success, however small. You will suffer me, therefore, to take a 
little time, which might be expended otherwise with profit, in 
the consideration of some minor matters to which we shall not of 
necessity recur again. 

I need not tell you that the Republican candidate is an able, 
adroit, wary, brilliant man. Some describe him as "magnetic," 
whatever that may mean. Perhaps he attracts things to him, 
or has a "taking way." Many thousands of his old associates 
who know him best feel sure that he is not over-scrupulous in 
his methods, will have nothing to do with him, and are casting 
their lot with us this year in every state in the Union. But, at 
all events, Mr. Blaine is fertile in resources, and is flanked by 
lieutenants more or less Hke himself. (Ironical laughter.) 

You can imagine, then, what his canvass has been, and will 
be, in his third desperate attempt to reach the presidency. He 
has at last accomphshed his first step, by securing his own party 
nomination. His next is to break down or injure, if possible, 
his only competitor. For, mark you, not three, but thirty or 
three hundred, candidates might run, under one set of colors or 
another, but it would still be a race between Cleveland and Blaine. 
Bear this in mind, and choose between them. If you wish to 
throw away a vote, do it with your eyes wide open. 

The first form of attack came before the convention. It was 
manifestly intended to prevent Governor Cleveland's nomination 
by frightening the convention into the belief that the governor had 
become the slave of monopolies, the enemy of labor, and the 
sworn foe of the Irish and the Catholics. I must confess that 



224 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

these wholesale charges, coming so suddenly, almost took my 
breath away at first, and left an impression which forced a full 
and careful inquiry. If that inquiry had not resulted in demon- 
strating the entire falsity of the charges, from beginning to end, 
I would not be here to-night to ask you to vote for Grover Cleve- 
land. (Great applause at Cleveland's name.) But I not only 
ask you to vote for him because the charges are false, but to work 
for him with might and main, — especially those of you who have 
been misled, — because he has been slandered and wronged in a 
vile and malignant way, not in the interest of political justice or 
political morality, but solely to promote the political fortunes of a 
daring political gamester. 

The most grievous offence alleged against Governor Cleveland 
is the veto of the "five-cent-fare bill," so called, prescribing a 
uniform five- cent fare on the elevated railway system in the city 
of New York. This is alleged to be against the interest of the 
working classes; yet not a murmur has come from them to this 
day, though the message was written on the 2d of March, 1883. 
Why? Because the working-men and working- women of that 
city, as well as all others, can ride any distance on those lines 
for five cents, from 5.30 to 8.30 a.m., and from 4.30 to 7.30 p.m., 
by virtue of commission rule. During six hours each day they 
can ride from the Battery to One Hundred and Fifty-fifth Street, 
eleven miles, over the most expensive railway on the planet, for 
about one-half the actual cost of transportation; and during the 
rest of the day all can ride the distance for ten cents, — cheaper 
than any first-class transportation in the world. The veto, there- 
fore, did not strike at the laboring classes; it only affected the 
well-to-do, who came late, and went early. The bill was passed 
in great haste, as a threat or measure of reprisal, the cause of 
which had passed at the time the bill reached the governor. It 
was proved, beyond doubt, that all passengers could not be car- 
ried at the reduced fare ; that the roads could not pay their inter- 
est, taxes, land damages, and wages ; that ruin to the system would 
inevitably result : so the subject was remitted to the railroad com- 
missioners, where it belongs, for such action in the future as will 
give the public the largest accommodation at the minimum of cost, 
and protect the rights of all. There was no justice in the bill (cries, 
"That is so!"), no public demand for it; it was denounced by 
Mayor Edson and others ; and Mr. Simon Sterne, one of the most 
eminent of the anti-Monopolists in the country, not only justifies 
the veto, but gives most cogent reasons why he should, in the inter- 
est of the people it was supposed to serve, veto it if he himself were 
governor. Is there a man in all the land who will vote against Cleve- 
land on this account ? If there be, he is not a fair man. He wants 
somebody else's property, or wants somebody else to pay his fare. 



APPENDIX 225 

The labor organizations scattered through the state of New 
York are centred in the Trades Assembly. It is the body which 
speaks for them and their cause in all matters relating to legisla- 
tion. Instead of wearying you with an analysis in detail of Gov- 
ernor Cleveland's action touching all labor bills which came before 
him, I prefer to use as a witness the able and honored president of 
that great organization. 

Troy, July 21, 1884. 
To the Argus: 

The Working-men's Assembly of this state has, since I have been 
at the head of that organization, succeeded in passing through the 
Legislature the following bills : Abolishing the manufacture of hats in 
state prisons, creating a bureau of labor statistics, the tenement-house 
cigar bill (twice), the aboHtion of convict contract labor, the lien law, 
and the conductors' and drivers' bill, — seven in all. Of these meas- 
ures, Governor Cleveland signed five, and vetoed two; viz., the Hen 
law and the conductors' and drivers' bill. As to the lien law, it is gen- 
erally acknowledged now that he did us a kindness in vetoing that bill, 
because, through errors of our own in draughting the measure, the bill 
as passed would have been a positive injury to us. The conductors' and 
drivers' bill, I think he should have signed. So the record shows that 
we have sent to Governor Cleveland six perfect bills, and he has 
signed five, and vetoed one. On this record I am not prepared to con- 
demn him. If the governor does us five favors, and commits but one 
error, I feel that he is entitled to my support. In addition to the Jabor 
measures prepared by our organization, Governor Cleveland has signed 
a bill introduced by Senator Fassett, which makes working-men pre- 
ferred creditors in case of assignment or failure of the firm or corpora- 
tion by which they are employed. Recognizing the justice of the 
measure, and its great benefits to the working-class, I asked Governor 
Cleveland to sign it; and he did so without hesitation. So, to sum 
the matter up, he has approved of six bills favorable to our interests, 
and disapproved of one. By his record on legitimate labor measures 
I judge him, and on the strength of that record I shall support him. 

Yours truly, 

Walter N. Thayer. 

In the face of this authoritative declaration by the leader of the 
bona fide organized working-men of the state, the charges and 
misrepresentations, so industriously circulated by bogus working- 
men and pretended "friends of labor," will fall flat where they 
were intended to excite revoh. (Cheers.) 

The "conductors' and drivers' bill," which Mr. Thayer thinks 
the governor should have approved, was, in many respects, as 
bad as the lien bill. It was not asked for by a single conductor 
or driver; could only operate to reduce their wages one-third, 
if it could operate at all; and was clearly, as the governor de- 



226 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

clared, "not in the interest of the working-men," as those for 
whose benefit it was supposed to be intended now admit. I 
call attention to the twenty-four reasons given by the meeting 
of the working-men, held in New York City on the twenty-fourth 
of this month, in favor of the election of Governor Cleveland, — 
all based upon his messages, and his signatures to a multitude of 
bills in the interest of the immigrant, the laborer, depositors in 
banks, the travelling public, and kindred reforms. 

These are the true voices of labor, and they will drown in this 
canvass the lying utterances of the slanderer and the dema- 
gogue. 

I ask no man to take my word for it. ("We will.") There 
stands the record ; and it proves not only that Governor Cleveland 
is neither hostile nor cold to the labor interest, but that he is, 
and always has been, a consistent, wise, and courageous friend. 
The advocates of Mr. Blaine have not hesitated to drag the ques- 
tion of religion [hisses] into the contest; and Catholics, as such, 
*are invited to desert the Democratic party, and vote the Repub- 
lican ticket this year, on account of alleged religious bias on the 
part of Governor Cleveland. Their bill of particulars is: First, 
Governor Cleveland's veto of the "freedom of worship" bill; and, 
secondly, his veto of the appropriation for the Catholic Protectory. 

It ought to be a sufficient answer to the first charge, to say, 
that the governor did not veto the "freedom of worship" bill. 
He never had a chance to do so as it never passed the Legisla- 
ture. It did pass the session of 1881, when his Republican prede- 
cessor vetoed it, which is probably the foundation of the lie told 
against Governor Cleveland. Had such a bill reached Governor 
Cleveland, I am assured that it would promptly receive his sig- 
nature. The Catholic Protectory is a most excellent institution, 
located in New York City, for the shelter and care of destitute 
children in New York and vicinity. It is not, as may be sup- 
posed, a public institution; though, by long usage, all such in- 
stitutions receive more or less financial aid from the county treasury, 
and in some rare cases from the state. The Catholic Protectory 
in 1883 was granted $20,000 by the Legislature; and the governor 
withheld his approval on the ground, among others, that the cost 
of maintaining that institution was properly chargeable upon the 
city and county of New York, rather than upon the state at large. 
In this view every lawyer will concur, including the eminent 
counsel for the Protectory, Hon. John E. Develin. (Loud ap- 
plause.) But, just before the convention, this veto was tortured 
into general anti-Cathohc prejudice, by those whose interest it 
was to break down the governor; and many who were ignorant 
of the grounds upon which the veto was based were led to believe 
that it was a blow directed at the Catholics as a class. I read 



APPENDIX 227 

what the president and counsel for the Protectory say about it 
in a letter written within a few weeks : — 

Mr. Daniel Manning, 

Chairman New York Delegation. 
We have never doubted the sincerity of the motives which induced 
Governor Cleveland to withhold his signature to the appropriation to 
the Protectory. We thought then, and think now, that he was not 
actuated by any feeling of bigotry, or of hostility to Catholics or to 
Catholic institutions. On the contrary, Governor Cleveland is liberal 
in the extreme; and we are of the firm belief that he was led to with- 
holding his approval of the appropriation solely by a sense of public 
duty, as he viewed it. 

Henry L. Hoguet, 

President of the Protectory. 
John E. Develin, 

Counsel and Adviser to the Protectory. 

Both these gentlemen are too well known to require an intro- 
duction to any CathoHc in the land; and both not only defend 
the governor from this base and unfounded attack, but warmly 
advocate his election to the presidency. 

Those who attack the governor for this veto are careful to 
conceal the fact that all denominations were treated alike by 
him; and that he approved no bill, nor any item in a bill, giving 
a dollar out of the treasury to any such institution, whether man- 
aged by Catholic or Protestant, Jew or Gentile. The safe and 
decided ground always taken by him is that public moneys shall 
be raised and expended only for public purposes. In the Supply 
Bill of 1883, he vetoed twenty-seven such items, amounting to 
$250,704.36. As Catholics, all we ask is fair play, and equal 
terms with all others in the community. We ask no special 
favors. And we serve notice on those who have so suddenly 
shown zeal for us — or our votes — that we are guided in our 
pubhc conduct by principle, not prejudice; and, if they appeal 
to the lower motives, they appeal to us in vain. 

I find, among other evidences of Governor Cleveland's deep hos- 
tility to the Catholics, that he has caused salaries to be given to 
three Catholic chaplains in the prisons of the state. No Catholic 
chaplain ever received a salary there before. 

I think an executive who has a race or religious prejudice 
will find some difficulty in concealing it in his appointments. 
The three leading positions in the gift of the executive of the 
state of New York, indeed the only three important ones, Gov- 
ernor Cleveland filled as follows : — 

Railroad Commissioner, John D. Kernan. 

Superintendent of Insurance, John A. McCall, Jr. 

Superintendent of Public Works, James Shanahan. 



228 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

It happens that all these gentlemen are of Irish blood, and 
Catholics in religion. I know the governor did not appoint 
them to these high positions because of their race or creed, but 
because they were eminently fit for the places. I presume he 
never thought of race or creed. But if he were narrow, bigoted, 
or even timid, he would never have done so, or would have hesi- 
tated. Why? Because never before, in the whole history of 
the state, were those offices, or any one of them, filled by men of 
Irish blood and Catholic faith. 

When the act to estabUsh an immigration commission went into 
effect, he did not hesitate to appoint an eminent Irish-American 
Catholic, William H. Murtha, as commissioner to carry out its 
beneficent provisions. I will not weary you with mention of 
many similar appointments to minor offices in the executive 
gift, though the list is full and representative. But I ask you, 
in all candor, what other governor in all the long, illustrious line 
has such a record? (Applause.) 

I disUke exceedingly to descend to the level of those who have 
imported this race and religious issue into the canvass; but I 
would fail in my duty to myself if I failed to defend our candidate 
from misrepresentations so vile, and charges so mean and men- 
dacious. 

Those of us who were born in Ireland, or spring from the 
Irish race, are here to stay. Whatever our Irish affihations, 
ties, or affections may be, — and I hope they are many, — in 
American politics we are Americans, pure and simple. We ask 
nothing on account of race or creed, and we submit to no sUght 
or injury on account of either. We and our children and our 
children's children are here merged in this great free, composite 
nationality, true and loyal citizens of the state and federal sys- 
tems, sharing in the burdens and the blessings of the freest people 
on the earth. All we ask is equality for us and ours. The man 
who takes less, or demands more, is no true American. 

Those who attempt to make us a clamoring class in the com- 
munity, seeking to use American pohtical means to other than 
American ends, are merely inverting Know-nothingism, and 
playing upon the impulses of men for their own selfish purposes. 
It is no compliment to us that schemers fancy we can be thus 
played upon. We are taking part in an American election con- 
test, in which the question to be decided is this: Which of the 
parties will give us the best administration, the safest, purest, 
most economical? Under which will the country be most likely 
to be prosperous at home, and respected abroad? 

It seems to me there is but one answer. The Republican party 
must stand on its record, and be judged. Under its policy and 
practice we have a reign of jobbery, corruption, and extravagance, 



APPENDIX 



229 



wild speculation, disgraceful swindles and failures, panics that 
shake the continent, strikes, idle mills, myriads of idle hands, 
wheat eighty-five cents a bushel in Chicago, manhood labor sixty 
cents a day in favored Pennsylvania. Our commerce has left 
the seas; the world's markets are closed to us. Our foreign 
diplomacy long since degenerated into flunkeyism; our citizens ' 
lie in foreign dungeons without trial, redress, or succor. This 
after twenty-four years of Republican rule and promise ! James 
G. Blaine is the fit candidate of that party, a prominent actor in 
the worst of its days, and a representative of all its broken prom- 
ises. His ingenious friends have now invented a new promise 
for him, with which to catch the votes of men who hope for the 
dawn of a better day in our foreign relations. They promise that 
he will give us a "vigorous foreign policy." He does not promise •* 
that himself, but permits his serviceable friends to whisper it for him. 

The man who, as Secretary of State, with all the power of the 
government over our foreign relations intrusted to him, permitted 
Americans to pine and die in British prisons without as much 
as uttering ten vigorous words in as many months, will give the 
British lion's tail a most vigorous twist, and make the beast howl, •> 
if you will only give him your votes, and make him President. 
His friends will even promise that his first work as President will 
be to free Ireland — for votes. Why did not the bold Blaine 
even say a word when Grover Cleveland twice asked him in 
manly speech from the platform in Buffalo in April and Decem- 
ber, 1882 ? He felt much more at home in editing a Know-nothing 
newspaper, and sending out anti-Catholic circulars from his office 
in Augusta some years ago; for nothing exceeds the zeal and 
venom of a renegade. This new-found love of Blaine and the -" 
New York Tribune for the Irish is like a limited railway ticket, 
— "good for this train and trip only." (Laughter.) 

We prefer to take this trip at least with the party that never 
trailed the American flag in the dust at home or abroad; that 
made the declaration, — 

"l AM AN AMERICAN CITIZEN," 

the key to open the prison door abroad to the court room or to 
liberty; that acquired the mighty Western domain; that fos- 
tered our plantations and our industries till the land blossomed 
in prosperity and gladness; the party that stood by the farmer 
and the working-man against monopoly and greed; the party 
that stood in all its days by the foreigner against every form of 
proscription and tyranny. 

It is the party of the people, of local self-government, indi- 
vidual liberty, pure and economical administration. 



23© LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

I have seen it stated that our candidate for President, among 
other alleged defects, is lacking in public experience. I wish 
some brilUant statesman who entertains that notion would in- 
form us whether a newspaper writer, manager of political can- 
vasses, and member of a legislative body has any better training 
for the presidency than a man of Grover Cleveland's education 
and practice. 

Not to mention his sound legal training, and other executive 
offices held by him, in all of which he won honor, commenda- 
tion, and respect, your governor to-day fills the most arduous 
executive position in the country. While Congress in the long 
session has passed less than two hundred bills, the Legislature 
of your state passes from six hundred to eight hundred. The 
President merely signs or vetoes a bill entire; and in this, if he 
please, he can have the advice of his Cabinet. Your governor 
is charged by the constitution with the duty of scanning every 
item in every bill, and approving or vetoing it as his individual 
judgment may determine him. This and his other multifarious 
duties keep him at his desk all day and late into the night, while 
the official work of the President occupies but a small share of his 
time. The man who can fill successfully this great ofiice here 
will find the presidency a bed of roses. 

That Grover Cleveland has filled the difficult post so admir- 
ably is the highest test to which his character and intellect could 
be subjected. 

He is broad, Hberal, courageous, discriminating, generous, 
and just. In the full prime of vigorous manhood, with a sound 
training and ripe experience, with a lofty sense of the sanctity 
and responsibiUty of public trust, he will enter the White House 
with a Jackson's will, — to purify the pubhc service and admin- 
istration, to restore the Repubhc to its old-time reign of pros- 
perity, economy, and Democratic simpUcity. (Loud and long- 
continued cheering.) 



CHAPTER III 

The St. Louis Speech in 1888 made by Mr. Collins as Presiding 
Officer of the Democratic National Convention — Democratic 
Principles Expounded. 

TO stand by your favor in this place so often filled by the 
foremost men in our great party, is a distinction of the 
highest character and an honor for which I am pro- 
foundly grateful. 

In performing the delicate and difficult service to which you 
have assigned me, I can scarcely hope to justify the wisdom of 
your choice. I shall at all times need a continuance of your in- 
dulgence and courtesy, as well as your full cooperation to promote 
order, decorum, and good- will, until these proceedings are brought 
to a happy close. 

We represent, in this convention, more than thirty millions of 
the American people. We bear their commission to act for them, 
and their injunction to act with all the wisdom that God has given 
us to protect and safeguard the institutions of the Republic as the 
fathers founded them. 

In a time when the world was king-ridden, and pauperized by 
the privileged few, when men scarcely dared to breathe the word 
"liberty," — even if they understood its meaning, — the people 
scattered along our eastern coast, with a sublime heroism never 
equalled, broke from all traditions, rejected all known systems, 
and estabhshed, to the amazement of the world, the political 
wonder of the ages, the American RepubHc. The American 
Repubhc, the child of revolution, nursed by philosophy ! The 
hand that framed the immortal Declaration of Independence is 
the hand that guided the emancipated country to progress and 
glory. It is the hand that guides us still in our onward march 
as a free and progressive people. The principles upon which 
our government can securely rest, upon which the peace, pros- 
perity, and liberties of the people depend, are the principles of 
the founder of our party, the apostle of Democracy, Thomas 
Jefi'erson. 

Our young men under thirty have heard more in their time 
of the clash of arms and the echoes of war than of the principles 
of government. It has been a period of passion, force, impulse, 

231 



232 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



and emotional politics. So that we need not wonder that now and 
then we hear the question asked and scarcely answered, "What 
difference is there between the two parties?" 

Every Democrat knows the difference. The Democratic creed 
was not penned by Jefferson for a section or a class of the people, 
but for all ; not for a day or a generation, but for all time. These 
principles conserved and expanded the RepubUc in all its better 
days. A strict adherence to them will preserve it to the end. So 
the Democracy of to-day as in the past beheve with Jefferson in — 

1. Equal and exact justice to all men of whatever state or per- 
suasion, religious or political. 

2. Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations; en- 
tangling alliances with none. 

3. Support of the state governments in all their rights, as the most 
competent administrators of our domestic concerns, and the surest 
bulwarks against anti-republican tendencies. 

4. The preservation of the general government in its whole consti- 
tutional vigor, as the sheet-anchor of our peace and safety abroad. 

5. A jealous care of the right of election by the people, a mild and 
safe corrective of abuses, which are lopped off by the sword of revolu- 
tion where peaceable means are unprovided. 

6. Absolute acquiescence in the decisions of the majority, the vital 
principle of republics, from which is no appeal but to force, the vital 
principle and immediate parent of despotism. 

7. A well-disciplined militia, our best reliance in peace and for the 
first moments in war. 

8. The supremacy of the civil over the military authority. 

9. Economy in the public expenses, that labor may be lightly bur- 
dened. 

10. The honest payment of our debts and the preservation of our 
public faith. 

11. Encouragement of agriculture and of commerce as its hand- 
maid. 

12. The diffusion of information, and arraignment of all abuses at 
the bar of public reason. 

13. Freedom of religion. 

14. Freedom of the press. 

15. Freedom of the person under the protection of the habeas 
corpus. 

16. Trial by juries impartially selected. 

Add to these the golden economic rule that no more taxes should 
be levied upon the people, in any way, than are necessary to meet 
the honest expenses of government, and you have a body of prin- 
ciples to sin against which has been political death to every party 
hitherto, to sin against which in the future will be pohtical suicide. 

True to these principles the Democratic party fought success- 
fully our foreign wars, protected our citizens in every cHme, com- 



APPENDIX 233 

pelled the respect of all nations for our flag, added imperial domain 
to our territory, and insured peace, prosperity, and happiness to 
all our people. 

False to these principles the great Federal, Whig, and Know- 
nothing parties went down, never to rise again. And we are here 
to-day representatives of the party that has survived all others, 
the united, triumphant, invincible Democracy, prepared to strike 
down forever the last surviving foe in November. 

Our standard must be the rallying point now and in the future 
for all good citizens who love and cherish republican institutions, 
who love liberty regulated by the constitution and law, who beheve 
in a government not for a class or for a few, but a government of 
all the, people, by all the people, and for all the people. 

This has been the asylum for all good men from over the earth 
who flee from want and oppression, and mean to become Americans. 
But we invite and welcome only "friends to this ground and liege- 
men" to the Republic. Our institutions cannot change to meet 
hostile wishes, nor be so much as sensibly modified save by the 
peaceful and dehberate action of the mass of our people in accord- 
ance with the Constitution and laws of the land. Whatever prob- 
lems the present has, or the future may present, so far as pohtical 
action can affect them, will be dealt with by the American people 
within the law. And in the future as in the past the people will 
find security for their liberty and property, encouragement and 
protection for their industries, peace and prosperity in following 
the party of the American masses, which will ever shield them 
against the aggressions of power and monopoly on the one side 
and on the other the surgings of chaos. 

While almost all the rest of the civiHzed world is darkened 
by armies, crushed by kings or nightmared by conspiracies, we 
alone enjoy a healthy peace, a rational Uberty, a progressive pros- 
perity. We owe it to our pohtical institutions, to Democratic 
teachings, at least as much as to the exuberant soil. 

The man is not a good American who, knowing what we are, 
by act or word, experiment or thought, in any way, will attempt 
to weaken the foundation of this splendid political structure — 
the Repubhc of the United States. 

We meet to-day under conditions new to the Democrats of this 
generation. How often we stood in conventions in the past, when 
to others it seemed as if the shadows of death closed about us, 
when the day of victory seemed almost as far away as the day of 
general judgment. It could not then be said that we met for 
spoils or personal advantage. We met to keep the fires of Demo- 
cratic liberty alive till the dawn of a better day. If we were a 
party of misfortune it must also be agreed that we were a party 
of undaunted courage and inflexible principle. 



234 



LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 



Twenty-eight years ago the Democratic party, rent into frag- 
ments, heated by feuds that only time could allay or punishment 
destroy, met, as it looks now, merely to settle in angry mood the 
terms upon which they should become exiles from power. 

By their mad dissensions they elected to go to defeat rather 
than wait for the sobering influence of time to close the breach. 
To the younger men of that day the act seemed suicide — miti- 
gated by insanity. 

Their madness transferred to a minority of the American 
people the pohtical government of all. That party, whatever 
the honesty and respectabihty of its members, however patriotic 
its motives, was not broad or national at its base. It had at most 
but one central idea, and when that idea was set in the constitution 
and crystalUzed into law, it ran a career of riot that appalled all 
men. The history of that period of pohtical debauchery is too 
sad and famiUar to Americans to be recited anew. 

The Republican party, sometimes peacefully and sometimes 
by force, sometimes fairly and sometimes by fraud, succeeded in 
holding power twenty- four years ; till at last the American people, 
no longer condoning its faults or forgiving its sins, hurled it from 
power, and again committed to the historic party of the consti- 
tution and the whole Union the administration of our pohtical 
affairs. 

We won by the well-earned confidence of the country in the 
rectitude of our purpose, by the aid of chivalrous and conscientious 
men, who could no longer brook the corruption of the RepubUcan 
party. It was a great, deserved, necessary victory. 

The day on which Grover Cleveland — the plain, straightfor- 
ward, typical American citizen chosen at that election — took the 
oath of office in presence of the multitude, — a day so lovely and 
so perfect that all Nature seemed exuberantly to sanction and to 
celebrate the victory, — that day marked the close of an old era 
and the beginning of a new one. 

It closed the era of usurpation of power by the Federal au- 
thority, of illegal force, of general contempt for constitutional 
limitations and plain law, of glaring scandals, profligate waste, 
and unspeakable corruptions, of narrow sectionahsm and class 
strife, of the reign of a party whose good work had long been 
done. 

It began the era of perfect peace and perfect union — the 
states fused in all their sovereignty into a Federal RepubHc with 
limited but ample powers; of a pubhc service conducted with 
absolute integrity and strict economy; of reforms pushed to their 
extreme hmit ; of comprehensive, sound, and safe financial poUcy, 
giving security and confidence to all enterprise and endeavor — 
a Democratic administration, faithful to its mighty trust, loyal 



APPENDIX 2SS 

to its pledges, true to the Constitution, safeguarding the interests 
and liberties of the people. 

And now we stand on the edge of another and perhaps a greater 
contest; with a relation to the electors that we have not held for 
a generation — that of responsibiUty for the great trust of govern- 
ment. We are no longer auditors but accountants; no longer 
critics but the criticised. The responsibiUty is ours, and if we 
have not taken all the power necessary to make that responsibility 
good, the fault is ours, not that of the people. 

We are confronted by a wily, unscrupulous, and desperate foe. 
There will be no speck on the record that they will not magnify 
into a blot, no circumstance that they will not torture and mis- 
represent, no disappointment that they will not exaggerate into 
a revolt, no class or creed that they will not seek to inflame, no 
passion that they will not attempt to rouse, no fraud that they will 
not wiUingly perpetrate. They fancy, indeed, that there is "no 
imposture too monstrous for the popular credulity," no crime that 
will not be condoned. 

But we stand at guard, full-armed at every point to meet them. 
Our appeal is not to passion or to prejudice, to class or faction, to 
race or creed, but to the sound common sense, the interest, the 
intelligence and patriotism of the American people. 

The administration of President Cleveland has triumphantly 
justified his election. It compels the respect, confidence, and 
approval of the country. The prophets of evil and disaster are 
dumb. 

What the people see is the government of the Union restored 
to its ancient footing of justice, peace, honesty, and impartial 
enforcement of law. They see the demands of labor and agri- 
culture met, so far as government can meet them, by legislative 
enactments for their encouragement and protection. They see 
the veterans of the civil war granted pensions long due them, to 
the amount of more than twice in number and nearly three times 
in value of those granted under any previous administration. 
They see more than twenty-two million acres of land, recklessly 
and illegally held by the grantees of the corrupt Republican 
regime, restored to the pubHc domain for the benefit of honest 
settlers. They see the negro, whose fears of Democratic rule 
were played upon by demagogues four years ago, not only more 
fully protected than by his pretended friends, but honored as his 
race was never honored before. They see a financial policy 
under which reckless speculation has practically ceased, and 
capital freed from distrust. They see for the first time an honest 
observance of the law governing the civil estabhshment, and the 
employees of the people rid, at last, of the poUtical highwayman 
with a demand for tribute in one hand and a letter of dismissal 



236 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

in the other. They see useless offices abolished and expenses of 
administration reduced, while improved methods have lifted the 
public service to high efficiency. They see tranquilHty, order, 
security, and equal justice restored in the land, a watchful, steady, 
safe, and patriotic administration — the solemn promise made 
by the Democracy faithfully kept. It is "an honest government 
by honest men." 

If this record seems prosaic, if it lacks the blood-thrilling ele- 
ments, if it is not ht with lurid fires, if it cannot be illustrated by a 
pyrotechnic display, if it is merely the plain record of a constitu- 
tional party in a time of peace engaged in administrative reforms, 
it is because the people of the country four years ago elected not 
to trust to sensation and experiment, however brilHant and allur- 
ing, but preferred to place the helm in a steady hand, with a fear- 
less, trustworthy, patriotic man behind it. Upon that record and 
upon our earnest efforts, as yet incomplete, to reduce and equalize 
the burdens of taxation, we enter the canvass and go to the polls 
confident that the free and intelHgent people of this great country 
will say, "Well done, good and faithful servants." 

To the patriotic, independent citizens who four years ago for- 
sook their old allegiance and came to our support, who since that 
time have nobly sustained the administration, the Democratic 
party owes a deep debt of gratitude. That they have been reviled 
and insulted by their former associates is not only a signal com- 
pliment to their character and influence, but another evidence of 
the decadence of the Republican party. BUnd worship of the 
machine — the political Juggernaut — is exacted from every man 
who will take even standing room in that party. The Democratic 
temple is open to all; and if in council we cannot agree in all 
things, our motto is "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, 
Hberty; in all things, charity." To all good men we say, "Come 
in" — "Good- will ne'er halted at the door-stane." As four years 
ago you voted with us to reform the administration, to conserve 
our institutions, for the well-being of our common country, so 
join with us again in approval of the work so well accomphshed, 
to complete what remains undone. We ask you to remember 
that it is a "fatal error to weaken the bands of a political organi- 
zation by which great reforms have been achieved, and risk them 
in the hands of their known adversaries." 

Four years ago you trusted tentatively the Democratic party, 
and supported with zeal and vigor its candidate for President. 
You thought him strong in all the sturdy qualities requisite for 
the great task of reform. Behold your splendid justification! 
No President in time of peace had so difficult and laborious a 
duty to perform. His party had been out of power for twenty- 
four years. Every member of it had been almost venomously 



APPENDIX 



237 



excluded from the smallest post where administration could be 
studied. Every place was filled by men whose interest it was to 
thwart inquiry and belittle the new administration. But the 
master hand came to the helm, and the true course has been kept 
from the beginning. 

We need not wait for time to do justice to the character and 
services of President Cleveland. Honest, clear-sighted, patient; 
grounded in respect for law and justice; with a thorough grasp 
of principles and situations; with marvellous and conscientious 
industry ; the very incarnation of firmness — he has nobly fulfilled 
the promise of his party, nobly met the expectations of his country, 
and written his name high on the scroll where future Americans 
will read only the names of men who have been supremely useful 
to the Republic. 

Fellow-Democrats : This is but the initial meeting in a political 
campaign destined to be memorable. It will be a clashing of 
nearly even forces. Let no man here or elsewhere belittle or 
underestimate the strength or resources of the opposition. But, 
great as they are, the old Democratic party, in conscious strength 
and perfect union, faces the issue fearlessly. 



CHAPTER IV 

Great Speech at Cooper Union, New York, in the Campaign of 1888 
— How the Republican Party had broken Faith with the 
People — The Iniquities of Tariff Taxation. 

My Friends and Fellow-Democrats : 

THE free material for a great Democratic victory appears 
to be here to-night — and it is not raw material either. 
During a truce in one of the great European wars in the 
early part of the century, three crowned rulers met at Tilsit, in 
Prussia. They rode along the lines of the victorious French army 
till Napoleon's eye was arrested by the sight of a giant veteran in 
the ranks, whose face had been slashed diagonally by a mighty 
sabre stroke that left him hideous but noble. "Brother," said he 
to the Czar of Russia, "what do you think of soldiers who can bear 
such wounds?" "What do you think of soldiers who can give 
them?" said the Czar. Napoleon did not answer, but the sol- 
dier did. Memories that led him back through all the battles of 
his chief, from Friedland to the bridge of Lodi, made him mutter : 
"They are all dead — all dead !" 

So the old Democratic party, cut and slashed in many a battlej 
beaten, but never subdued, defeated but never discouraged, can 
look back through the century, making the rise and fall of all 
poHtical organizations that rose and grew and fronted it — Fed- 
erahsts and Whigs and Know-nothings — and say, "they are all 
dead." Why did they perish as the flowers or the weeds perish, 
and Democracy survive as the oak? Because they were parties 
of a class, a section, a single idea — parties of a day, that set with 
a day's sun. 

We alone from the beginning have been the party of the whole 
people, never resting upon wealth or property, class or creed, 
faction or special interest, but upon the broad basis of the uni- 
versal suffrage of a free and intelligent people. So "parties come 
and parties go, but we go on forever." 

Through a rift in the Democratic ranks the RepubUcan party 
came into power in 186 1. In the long and bloody agony of the 
war that followed party lines were erased, and the wealth and 

238 



APPENDIX 239 

energy and life of the whole North were freely pledged and given 
to save the Union. All mistakes were overlooked, countless 
political sins were forgiven, and only the plainest usurpations of 
power, dangerous as precedents for the future, were criticised by 
the Democracy. 

But the time came when the last Confederate flag was folded 
and the last Confederate gun was hushed forever. Then also 
came the time to test the statesmanship, the honor, and the com- 
mon honesty of the Republican leaders. They dechned to con- 
fiscate directly individual estates, but they plundered the whole 
Southern region. They refused to hang a single rebel, but they 
crucified the states. Drunk with power, made possible to them 
by the trusting patriotism of the whole people of the North in the 
blaze of the Civil War, they wasted and stole, and stole and wasted, 
until it seemed as if there was nothing else left, and then they stole 
the presidency of the United States ! This darkest blot upon our 
national history makes scarlet the cheek of even the common 
malefactor to contemplate, and will never be forgotten or forgiven 
while honest men have memories or conscience lives in human 
breasts. 

The people had sobered and were cheated. But the people 
kept sober and were not cheated; and in 1884 in every sovereign 
state of this Union the ballots cast were counted and returned, 
and a man true to the Constitution and his oath of office, a plain, 
cool, able, fearless, honorable New York Democrat, became Presi- 
dent of the United States. 

His administration — our administration — has been on trial 
more than three years. It needs neither eulogy nor defence from 
me or from you. The record is as plain and as free from sen- 
sation as the record of any great trust faithfully administered. 
This thing we call government — the thing which some men 
fooUshly look up to as a cure for all social ills — is merely a neces- 
sary agency to attend to such public matters as we cannot con- 
veniently attend to ourselves. Wendell PhilHps tersely called it 
"a necessary nuisance." Those to whom it is committed for 
the time being are the servants, not the masters, of the people. 
They are trustees of the common welfare, clothed with enormous 
powers and responsibihties. 

Once in four years these trustees are called to render an account 
of their stewardship to the whole people, and the whole people, 
like shareholders in a great corporation, are to determine whether 
to continue or to change them. I wish we could all approach 
the coming election in this spirit, and, irrespective of past party 
affiliations, cast our votes so as to insure the best administration, 
and thus best promote the well-being of all our people during 
the next four years. 



240 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

Early in the season the promise was given and the hope held out 
by our political opponents, that this was to be, on both sides, a 
campaign of reason and fairness and truth-telling. It is hard to 
tell whether that promise was originally meant to deceive, or 
whether the disposition was abandoned as an afterthought by 
the Repubhcans. At all events, they seem to find that the truth 
will do them no good, and they have entered upon a canvass of 
the most amazing misrepresentations conceivable. 

Four years ago when they slandered one Democrat — our 
honored candidate for President — he boldly met them with the 
manly challenge, " Tell the Truth." Now, when they slander 
our whole party, we meet them in the same plain way, and, as 
we know they will not tell the truth themselves, we tell it for them. 
Their appeal is to prejudice and passion, to the supposed ignorance 
of their countrymen, to race, to class, and to creed ; ours is to the 
common sense, self-interest, and recognized intelligence of the 
whole American people. 

The pledges solemnly made in 1884, by the Democratic party to 
the people of the United States, have been faithfully kept. 

Peace, good order, and prosperity within the range of our 
industrial conditions have been maintained at home, and the 
dignity and honor of our repubhc asserted abroad. We have had 
a clean, honorable, honest administration. The time was when 
our domestic administration was official plunder and our foreign 
policy often a dirty job. 

Two hundred milhon acres of our fairest public domain was 
recklessly given away to favored monopohes by the Republican 
regime — not one acre of which they ever acquired by conquest 
or by purchase — while millions more were allowed to be cap- 
tured by foreign syndicates. We have wrested from their grasp 
and restored to the public domain, for the benefit of honest set- 
tlers, some 80,000,000 acres — an area four times as great as 
Ireland, and the end is not yet. 

In 1864 the Repubhcans passed an act stimulating the emigra- 
tion of laborers under contract from abroad, bound to work long 
terms for the smallest wages. We have repealed the act and have 
made it highly penal to bring a single human being under such a 
system of slavery into this country, to compete with free American 
labor. 

The eight-hour law is twenty years old, but this administration 
has first given it life and operation. 

We have closed the gates at last against the introduction in any 
way of the Chinese horde that threatened to swamp our American 
labor market. And yet the Republicans say they are the only friends 
of labor ! 

The civil service law was a jest four years ago. None but the 



APPENDIX 241 

faithful could find their way in. Political highwaymen, with a 
demand for tribute in one hand and a letter of dismissal in the 
other, terrorized the government employees, from clerks to scrub- 
women, who foolishly thought they were serving the whole country 
and not a party. The Democratic party has made them free. 
They are free to contribute, and they are free not to contribute, 
as I am free and you are free. 

Upon pretence of keeping up a naval estabUshment, countless 
milHons were stolen and wasted under RepubUcan administra- 
tions, with the net result that the mightiest of the fleet was igno- 
miniously sunk in yonder waters, by a poor ignoble coal schooner. 
This scandal will be almost forgotten when the fleet of thirty 
naval vessels of the best known type, built or projected under the 
watchful eye of Secretary Whitney, will proudly float our flag. 
They will not only carry the American flag, but they will represent 
American labor, American ingenuity, and American honor with- 
out a stain. Four years ago the veterans of the Civil War, whose 
wounds gaped afresh at each delay of recognition of just claims 
to pensions, were jostled aside, unless, indeed, they promised 
fealty to a party rather than the repubHc they had risked their 
lives for, while the commissioner of pensions, Blaine's manager 
then and Harrison's manager now, paraded the country with his 
horde of "examiners in the field," doing party work at the expense 
of the whole people. During this administration nearly twice as 
many pensions have been issued as during the four years before, 
through the pension office and by act of Congress, and the ques- 
tion has never been once asked under what party banner the 
beneficiaries voted, but only whether they earned their pensions 
in following the flag of the Union. 

For seventy years we have had a misunderstanding about our 
fishing rights in Canadian waters. Some years ago the Republican 
administration then in power sent down to HaHfax a trout fisherman 
and an equity lawyer — both good and amiable men — to settle the 
difficuky with the British sharpers. They did so well that we 
paid England $5,500,000 in cash, and opened our markets 'to 
Canadian goods for ten years at an expense in duties lost of some 
$10,000,000 more. This briUiant performance seems to have been 
lost sight of in the cloud of wrath that met Mr. Cleveland's attempt, 
when the treaty expired, to settle the matter peaceably without the 
payment of any tribute whatever to Canada or Great Britain. 

The sage and reverend Repubhcan senators lost their tempers 
and their heads in denouncing the President as a coward and a 
' ' friend to England, ' ' in attempting to settle this long-standing quarrel 
and protect our fishermen from annoyance and oppression in this 
way. But they forgot to tell the country how it ought to be settled ; 
and they supposed, perhaps, that the country would forget that it 



242 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

was in the power of the Senate to strike out every line of the pro- 
posed treaty and insert any plan of settlement that suited their 
own views. 

But, no, they changed not one word, but bluntly rejected it as a 
whole. They posed as patriots and "their voices were for war." 
They wanted to punish England, they said (in view of the coming 
election), and just show the great American people, especially 
men like me, how Httle they regarded her. Down went the treaty 
and up rose President Cleveland, equal to this as to every other 
occasion. He said, "Give me the club and you will see how I 
will use it." In dealing with this situation his motto seemed to 
be: " Peaceably if we can ; forcibly if we must ; but the question 
must be settled." 

Which type of Americanism do you respect? Look at the 
Senate ! 

And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, 
The idols are broke in the temple of Baal. 

Now hear Blaine and Harrison and the whole chorus ! They 
deprecate trouble ; they hope no injury will be done to Canadian 
commercial relations ; they hope no force will be used ! Judge 
between the President and them. 

The President's course has been open, manly, and patriotic; 
theirs is contemptible trimming. So on the tariff. 

The Republican position is pure trimming and gross misrepre- 
sentation. For nearly twenty years the platforms of both parties 
have pronounced for reduction and revision, not only in national 
conventions but in those of states. The Republican platform of 
1884 is a sample: — 

"The Republican party pledges itself to correct the inequalities 
of the tariff, and to reduce the surplus." 

For nearly twenty years RepubHcan Presidents and secretaries 
of the treasury have called for reduction and revision with at least 
equal emphasis. Nearly every pubUc man among them with in- 
telhgence and reputation has echoed the demand. A commission 
of experts appointed by President Arthur reported in 1883 in 
favor of a 20 per cent reduction. The Repubhcan Congress in 
1883 acted upon that report, and professed to reduce the tariff, 
but by a juggle and a cheat raised it from 44 to 47 per cent. This 
was the way the RepubHcans, when they had full power, pretended 
to carry out their platform pledges — trimming and cheating again, 
shamelessly breaking their plighted faith with the people and 
glorying in their shame. 

We have endeavored to keep our faith with the people honestly 
and intelligently, we have passed a bill in the House of Repre- 



APPENDIX 243 

sentatives which insures a reduction of the revenue $78,000,000 
a year. I voted for that bill, and I should be ashamed to face my 
constituents and you if I had not. 

But why any reduction ? Because by over-taxation there is 
in the treasury of the United States to-day about $140,000,000 
for which the government has no legitimate use ; and if the present 
tariff remains, we shall add to it from $70,000,000 to $100,000,000 
every year, all idle, dead, earning no interest, and withdrawn 
from the channels of trade. The entire volume of our currency, 
metallic and paper, is but $1,900,000,000; this is all the currency 
the people have to do business with. It is the normal, necessary 
volume of currency. A slight contraction is inconvenient, a 
larger contraction is dangerous, an excessive contraction is paraly- 
sis and ruin. 

This surplus taken out of the pockets of the people under a 
system condemned by all parties, withdrawn from the channels 
of trade, lying dead and worse than useless in the vaults of the 
treasury, we propose to restore to its owners and reduce taxation 
to the honest needs of the government. 

For this we are stigmatized as free traders, and the foe to 
American labor. In quarters we are charged, I beUeve, with 
being emissaries of England and missionaries of some kind of 
Cobden Club. About the nearest club recognition men like me 
may ever expect to get in Great Britain is from the club of a 
policeman. 

Free trade is an impossibility in this country, even if it were 
desirable. To support the government costs nearly $300,000,000 
a year, and the people must pay it somehow. We raise from the 
internal revenue about $118,000,000; and from customs duties 
(the tariff) the remainder must continue to be raised indefinitely. 
But at present we raise the requisite amount and more ; hence the 
surplus. 

To prevent that surplus in the future, this dreadful Mills bill 
that we have passed proposes to put lumber, salt, tin plate, and 
wool on the free list — to pay no duties at all — and to reduce 
duties on foreign manufactured goods, from an average of $47.10 
on each $100 worth to a little over $41 on each $100 worth — or 
less than 7 per cent. In other words, the purpose is to give the 
manufacturers of the United States free raw material, as far as 
possible, and "protection" for capital and labor by a tariff on all 
manufactured goods of over 41 per cent. This is more than 
twice as high as the tariff of i860 — nearly as high as the tariff 
before the dishonest revision of 1883, much higher than any previ- 
ous tariff since the war, and, with the free list proposed, it is far 
more favorable to American manufacturers and labor than any 
tariff that has ever been in force in this country. 



244 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

This bill has been framed in the interest of the whole body of 
manufacturers, wage workers, and consumers — the whole Ameri- 
can people, — not in the interest of a favored class. It will enable 
us not only to hold our own market against the world but to com- 
pete abroad with other producers, giving more work and better 
wages to our working people. Under the present system one- 
third of our people are out of employment one-third of the time. 
It has bred milHonnaires and beggars, monopolists and paupers. 
It gives one employer $1,500,000 a year profits, and his men 
sixty cents a day. It is unjust, oppressive, and dangerous, and 
the sooner the country is emancipated from it the sooner genuine 
prosperity will come and a more equal and healthy distribution 
of wealth take place. 

But, suppose, for the sake of the argument, that we are in error, 
what do the RepubUcans propose? How do they intend to deal 
with this dangerous condition? Congress has been in session 
nearly ten months, and the Republicans promising a measure of 
relief from day to day, and from month to month, have produced 
nothing, and can agree upon nothing thus far. They simply 
block the way. They have risen to the patriotism and statesman- 
ship of a balky mule. They simply obstruct all relief legislation 
and misrepresent the Democratic position. 

But this nominal Republican candidate, in his rather opaque 
letter of acceptance, has one clear expression — he changes a 
trifle from the conventional party criticism and says that, while 
the Mills bill is not a free trade measure in itself, "it is a step in 
the direction of free trade " — because it lowers the tariff 6 or 
7 per cent ! What charming logic ! He might just as well 
say that if, in leaving this hall, you take a step westward you are 
bound for Cahfornia, or when you took a step upstairs you were 
on the way to the moon, or when you go down a step by and by 
you are booked through to sheol ! 

Another sapient suggestion is made in order to excite the preju- 
dice of some of our voters: "See how British free trade ruined 
Ireland." If you want to know what ruined Ireland, you needn't 
spend much time with any learned RepubHcan propagandist. 
Any peasant's or shopkeeper's son from Ireland will tell you. It 
was not free trade, or fair trade, or any trade at all, but the sup- 
pression of all trade, practically, by acts of Parliament and king's 
decrees, that ruined Irish industries. Perhaps those people who 
are so soHcitous about Irish industries, and especially Irish votes, 
will give John Mitchel credit for knowing the subject. On page 
1 7 of his history of Ireland you will find what happened : — 

"During the first year of WiUiam's (WiUiam III) reign, there 
being then abundance of sheep in Ireland, and also much cheap 
labor, considerable progress was made in the manufacture of 



APPENDIX 24S 

woollen cloths; these fabrics were exported in some quantity to 
foreign countries, and in many cases the Irish manufacturer was 
enabled to undersell the English. But England was then using 
great exertions to obtain the entire control of this gainful trade; 
and the competition of Ireland gave great umbrage. It is true 
that the woollen trade in Ireland, and all the profits of its export 
and sale, were in the hands of the EngHsh colonists, and that the 
colonial ParUament in Dublin would fain have extended and pro- 
tected it had they been permitted. 

"But here again the EngUsh power stepped in and controlled 
everything according to its own interest. The two Houses of 
Lords and Commons addressed King William, urging that some 
immediate remedy must be found against the obnoxious trade in 
Ireland. The Lords, after detaiUng the intolerable oppression 
which was inflicted upon deserving industrious people in England, 
expressed themselves thus: 'Wherefore, we must humbly beseech 
your most sacred majesty, that your majesty would be pleased in 
the most pubhc and effectual way that may be, to declare to all 
your subjects of Ireland, that the growth and increase of the 
woollen manufacture here hath long been, and will be ever, looked 
upon with great jealousy by all your subjects of this kingdom, 
and if not timely remedied, may occasion very strict laws totally 
to prohibit and suppress the same.' 

"Probably no more shameless avowal of British greediness 
was ever made even by the Parliament of England. But the king 
replied at once that 'he would do all that in him lay to discourage 
the woollen manufacture of Ireland,' in other words, to ruin his 
subjects of that island. The Irish ParUament was now assem- 
bled in Dubhn. The Earl of Galway and two others were lords 
justices, and they, pursuant to their instructions, recommended to 
ParUament to adopt means for putting a stop to the woollen manu- 
facture, and to encourage the linen. The Commons, in their 
address, meekly repUed that they shall heartily endeavor to 
encourage the linen trade, and as to the woollen they tamely 
express their hope to find such a temperament that the same may 
not be injurious to England. The temperament they found was 
in the acts which were passed in the following year, 1699, which 
minutely regulated everything relating to wool. In the first place 
all export of Irish woollen cloths was prohibited, except to Eng- 
land and Wales. 

"The exception was delusive, because heavy duties, amounting 
to a prohibition, prevented Irish cloth from being imported into 
England or Wales. Irish wool, thereafter, had to be sent to Eng- 
land in a raw state, to be woven in Yorkshire ; and even this export 
was cramped by appointing one single EngUsh port, Barnstable, 
as the only point where it could legally enter. AU attempts at 



246 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

foreign commerce in Ireland were at this time impeded also by 
the 'navigation laws,' which had long prohibited all direct trade 
between Ireland and the colonies; no colonial produce, under 
these laws, could be carried to Ireland until after it should have 
first entered an EngHsh port and unloaded there. The object of 
these laws, of course, was to secure to English merchants and ship- 
owners a monopoly on all such trade, and they had the desired 
effect, so that a few years afterwards the Dean of St. Patrick's 
could truly write: 'The conveniency of ports and harbors which 
nature has bestowed so Hberally upon this kingdom, is of no more 
use to us than a beautiful prospect to a man shut up in a dungeon.' " 

Later on, in 1782, Ireland won her legislative independence, 
and enjoyed, as Mitchel further says, "for the first time in her 
history, unobstructed trade,^' and a great prosperity until the fatal 
act of union. Then and since, England, the great national and 
international hog, has swallowed Ireland's share as well as her 
own. 

But we need no foreign examples to be recited or refuted in 
order to instruct the people of this republic in their interests and 
welfare. We stand alone among the nations. Europe is a vast 
camp. Every family of toilers carries a soldier on its back. The 
old nations are crowded, and the struggle for existence in all is 
sharp and desperate, no matter what the industrial poUcy of the 
country may be. 

Under high tariff and low, whether employed in "protected" 
or unprotected industries, under all conditions, our people have 
enjoyed larger wages and greater prosperity than elsewhere. It has 
been due to the energy and enterprise, the ingenuity and skill, the 
vigor and the industry, of our free and intelligent people scattered 
over a vast exuberant land of plenty. They have prospered in 
spite of shackled trade, and have marched in spite of heavy bur- 
dens. Lighten the load and break the shackles, continue good 
government in the land, and American industries and American 
enterprise may challenge the future and the world. 

What we need and all we need in this republic is an honest 
government, a sound financial policy, a free field and fair play for 
all labor and capital, and death to monopoly, the mortal enemy 
of all. 



CHAPTER V 

CoLLiNs's Tribute to Boyle O'Reilly — A " Literary Mosaic " — A 
Poem in Prose — A Touching Story of the Affection which Two 
Strong Men bore to Each Other. 

ON September 2, 1890, a public meeting was held 
in Tremont Temple, Boston, in honor of the late 
John Boyle O'Reilly, whose untimely death had 
occurred on August 10. Representatives of church and 
state, men prominent in literature, law, and other walks 
of life, assembled in the Temple to pay their tribute to 
the dead poet. But there was one among them whose 
soul was heavily burdened with a deep and crushing sorrow, 
his friend, his companion, his co-worker in the cause of 
Ireland. That man was Patrick A. Collins. When 
O'Reilly landed in Boston in 1869, he was taken up by 
Collins. The escaped convict — for he had only recently 
gotten away from the penal colony in Australia — went to 
the home of Mrs. Collins and was treated as a member of 
the little family until he secured a clerkship in a steamship 
office on State Street. From that time until the death of 
O'Reilly these two men had been close friends. They 
grew together in power, in influence, in intellectual strength, 
and in public esteem and confidence, and as they grew they 
were drawn still closer to each other in sentiment and 
sympathy. I know of no incident in his career which 
stung him so sharply or which inflicted such a deep wound 
upon his sensitive nature as the charge made by a relative 
of O'ReiUy, in the heat of a political campaign, that Collins 
had been untrue to him in act and feeling. No greater 
slander upon a man of manly instincts and sublime loyalty 
could be uttered or invented than this. It was absolutely 
untrue and malicious. Collins loved O'Reifly as a brother; 
he esteemed him as a man, and he gloried in his steady 
progress to fame and fortune as a man of letters. When 
he was called upon to pay his tribute to his dead friend, he 
delivered the following literary mosaic which deserves a 

247 



248 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

place among the best poems in prose that are to be found 
in our language : — 

For Lycidas is dead before his prime 
. . . and has not left a peer. 

Even in this solemn hour of public mourning, it seems hard to 
realize that we shall see him no more. Men who know us both 
will expect from me no eulogy of Boyle O'Reilly. You mourn 
the journahst, the poet, the patriot of two peoples — the strong, 
tender, true, and knightly character. I mourn with you, and I 
also mourn — alone. 

But, after all, the dead speak for themselves. No friend in 
prose or verse can add a cubit to his stature. No foe, however 
mendacious, can lessen his fame, or the love humanity bears him. 

Yet we owe, not to him, but to the living and to the future, 
these manifold expressions of regard — these estimates of his worth. 
The feverish age always needs teaching. Here was a branded 
outcast some twenty years ago, stranded in a strange land, friend- 
less and penniless ; to-day wept for all over the world where men 
are free or seeking to be free, for his large heart went out to all in 
trouble, and his soul was the soul of a freeman; all he had he 
gave to humanity, and asked no return. 

Take the lesson of his life to your hearts, young men ; you who 
are scrambHng and wrangHng for petty dignities and for small 
honors. This man held no office and had no title. The man 
was larger than any office, and no title could ennoble him. He 
was born without an atom of prejudice, and he Hved and died 
without an evil or ungenerous thought. 

He was Irish and American; intensely both, but more than 
both. The world was his country and mankind was his kin. 
Often he struck, but he always struck power, never the helpless. 
He seemed to feel with the dying regicide in "Les Mis6rables": 
"I weep with you for the son of the king, murdered in the Temple, 
but weep with me for the children of the people — they have 
suffered longest." 

Numbered and marked and branded; officially called rebel, 
traitor, convict, and felon, wherever the red flag floats; denied 
the sad privilege of kneeling on the grave of his mother — thus 
died this superb citizen of the great RepubHc. 

But his soul was always free — vain are all mortal interdicts. 

By the banks of that lovely river, where the blood of four nations 
once commingled, in sight of the monument to the ahen victor, 
hard by the great mysterious Rath, over one sanctified spot dearer 
than all others to him, where the dew glistened on the softest green, 
the spirit of O'Reilly hovered, and shook the stillness of the Irish 
dawn on its journey to the stars. 



CHAPTER VI 

Christopher Columbus — A Superb Sketch of the Antecedent 
Events to the Great Voyage of Discovery — The Results of 
THAT Discovery. 

IN 1892 the four hundredth anniversary of the discovery 
of America by Christopher Columbus was celebrated by 
the Catholic societies of Boston. In that celebration 
were represented four or five elements of our composite 
citizenship — the Italians, the Spaniards, the Irish, and the 
Portuguese. Sons and daughters of the old Puritan settlers 
were also participants while German musicians enlivened 
the occasion with the very choicest and most appropriate 
selections. The closing exercises of the day were held in 
the old Music Hall, which was packed to its fullest capacity 
by an enthusiastic audience. Over this meeting the mayor 
of Boston, the Hon. Nathan Matthews, Jr., presided. 
The oration was delivered by Mr. Collins, who surprised 
even his admiring friends by the wealth of knowledge and 
historical research which he crowded into his address. He 
spoke as follows : — 

The enduring names are few. It is not enough for man to 
be great and good and successful. He must also be fortunate — 
fortunate in his age, his environment, or his achievement — to 
win for his name a place on the immortal scroll. 

Good and great men sweep by in endless procession through the 
ages, and by the ages are forgotten. Only the supremely great and 
supremely fortunate hold the gaze of the race forever. 

Like men are epochs and events. All things are recorded some- 
where, like births and marriages and deaths, in parish registers, 
and even the fall of a sparrow — the most undesirable of all birds 
— is said not to pass unnoticed. But the very great happenings 
that seize the imagination of men and hold it in eternal grasp are 
very rare. 

The creation of the world, the redemption of man, the discovery 
of America, the Declaration of Independence — not to be irrev- 

249 



250 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

erent in association — these stand out, and will stand to the end, 
the shining, dominating peaks in the landscape of history, dwarf- 
ing all other events and transactions by their magnitude and 
majesty. 

It is fruitless and foolish to attempt to minimize the importance 
of the great discovery ; it is idle to try to reduce the figure of the 
great discoverer. Four hundred years ago last spring the peoples 
of the two hemispheres were as unknown to one another as if they 
inhabited different planets or had never existed. Here from the 
Arctic to the Southern cape, from ocean to ocean, were races of 
men, generally similar, evidently present from the beginning, 
some with a unique civihzation and some with a savagery all their 
own. Not one of all the dusky tribes had ever seen or heard of an 
old world or of an old-world man. 

The old world knew as httle of the new. Fables and legends 
exist ; stories that rise almost to the dignity of history are spread of 
Irish ventures and Scandinavian visits, of landings and small set- 
tlements in Greenland and "Vinland the Good," of skimmings 
along the New England coast long before Columbus saw the 
light. 

But for mankind, a discovery not followed by settlement, and 
persisted in, is practically no discovery at all. 

No European museum holds an unquestioned memorial of 
such an early discovery. No monument stands on these shores 
to attest it. If they came, they went and left no sign, and they 
bore away no evidence. For us and for the future the first blue 
eyes from Europe that saw the new world were set in the skull of 
the great Italian sailor. 

Four hundred years ago last spring, the old world of history 
knew nothing of the new, and it did not and could not know itself. 
Europe and Asia were not on visiting terms, and had not been 
within the memory of living men or their immediate ancestors. 
Europe was hemmed in and gradually getting squeezed smaller. 
The olden world, the world of earhest song and story, the cradle 
of the race — Eden, Palestine, Persia, India, and Cathay, the 
world of Israel and the prophets, of Christ and Confucius and 
Brahma, was a world of which Europe had had no knowledge 
for nearly two centuries. 

Communication was absolutely blocked on all the famihar sea- 
paths, and on all the tracks of the caravans by the new and ter- 
rible power that had arisen in Asia. The northern shore of Africa 
and all the ancient lands behind it were held in the firm grip of 
the followers of the prophet. The Ottoman power swayed all 
western Asia, and menaced eastern Europe to the hills of Hungary. 
To the extreme north were the Tartars and "the unknown." 
Turkish and Moorish pirates swept all the south and east Mediter- 



APPENDIX 251 

ranean waters, spreading terror and ruin as they sailed. Every 
Christian ship went armed, and every Christian sailor was a 
fighter. The Crescent gleamed where the Cross was first planted. 
Constantinople had fallen, and the church of St. Sophia was a 
mosque. The dream of the first Christian emperor had a sad 
awakening; his mistake was a tragedy for the Christian world. 

The Mongol horde occupied or awed all the northeast region. 
Properly speaking, no Russia existed. The steppes and the streams 
were there as now ; millions of men existed, moved and lived and 
died, but all was without political form. 

The mighty empire of these later days had yet to gather and 
grow and organize upon the ruins, and profit by the mistakes of a 
gentler and a nobler Slavic power. The land of Russia, for the 
most part, was dimly known, untracked, unexplored, and vaguely 
called ''The Wilderness." The commonwealth of Poland — the 
most loose-jointed, heterogeneous, and politically bedevilled of the 
nations, the seeds of disease and death already germinating in it — 
but grand, heroic, and beautiful in the renown it had won and in 
the history it was to make, stood sentinel. 

It stretched from the shores of the Baltic ocean clear to the 
limits of the Tartar and the Ottoman advance. It stood as a 
barrier of protection for European civiHzation against the furious 
and constant assaults of the fanatic and savage horde of the east. 
It is possible that western civihzation would have perished but 
for it, and it is certain that the Polish king, knightly John Sobieski, 
happened in at Vienna when the clock struck the fatal hour. 

For two hundred years the peasant on the Rhine tended his 
vines; the Saxon and Silesian husbandman pushed his wooden 
plough through the peaceful field; the shepherd of Bohemia and 
the Tyrol carolled as he watched his flock in conscious security, 
for the Polish lancers flashed in unbroken line from the Saitch to 
the Baltic. 

Behind that rampart, the Europe of the north rallied, formed, 
organized, built its cities, extended its commerce, lifted its thought. 
There was yet no Prussian king or kingdom. The atoms and 
elements that in the distant day were to form the two great Ger- 
manic empires existed, but they were petty, incongruous, repelling, 
unfit for cohesion. 

A duke of Burgundy held a court as proud and head as high as 
the king of the shrunken France. The Scandinavian realms and 
rulers were there, secured in their northern half isolation. 

To the west was an England without a colony on earth, a Scot- 
land still proud of its autonomy, a Wales not yet beguiled of its 
independence and Ireland destined for all time to be un-English, 
superb because unconquerable. Farthest of all was Iceland, 
the "Ultima Thule." Southward were the prosperous and fortu- 



252 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

nate little kingdoms of Portugal and the Spanish lands just united 
by the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella, preparing for the end- 
ing of the seven hundred years of Moorish power in the peninsula. 
Italy was rent and split and cut into as many political frag- 
ments as family feud and petty ambition could make. The 
Cathohc Church had some small temporal possessions as well as 
the spiritual dominion of all Christendom. For the rest, little 
kings and dukes ruled over toy realms and engaged sometimes in 
sanguinary, tiny wars. 

There, also, and commercially, if not poHtically, far greater 
were the maritime republics, Venice and Genoa, citadels of liberty 
and nurseries of all enterprise. 

This was our old-world Europe. No caravan had crossed the 
desert since convoyed by the Crusaders, no European ship could 
touch a Moorish or a Moslem port except as a captive. The 
olden world had utterly gone, swept into the void, swallowed up — 
only a memory remained. 

Long ago the Crusaders had returned from their romantic 
exploit and brief occupation of the sacred land. Baffled, beaten, 
and driven out were the Christian rescuers and watchers of the 
holy sepulchre. Long ago Marco Polo had gazed upon the face 
of the "Great Kahn," and had seen the "wealth of Ormus and of 
Ind." He had taken weary years to go and come, and his won- 
drous tale was credited because it was reenforced with wealth 
that made Italian eyes expand, and with gems and jewels and 
fabrics till then unknown to his people. 

Worthy monks, seeking the salvation of elusive heathen souls, 
had also gone and returned uneaten and unflayed to tell their 
marvellous story of the great continent swarming with men and 
abounding in riches. The part of their narrative, as time was to 
tell, rnost important of all, was the existence of an eastern shore 
in Asia, and beyond it a vast and unsailed sea, but monk and 
adventurer and Crusader had been sleeping for generations, and 
the known land and waterways were alike blocked by the infidel, 
and impassable to the Christian. 

^ Still the ancient land was there with its teeming population, its 
spices, silks, and priceless mines, and hoards of gold and gems. 
But how to reach it, to renew relations with our elder brothers, 
how to conquer, by the arts of commerce or peace, or even war, 
the opulent and indolent millions of those far-off favored regions? 
This was the problem that stirred men's minds long before the 
keel of the Santa Maria was laid. The land route was surely out 
of the question. 

Even if all the quarrelsome and unrelated princes of Europe 
could unite and mass their forces, in the name of commerce or 
m the name of the Lord, the road to these could not be opened 



APPENDIX 253 

and held. The corsairs swarmed the seas, clouds of the fleetest 
horsemen that ever swept desert or plain sentinelled every mile of 
the landway. 

The crusades and their lessons were painfully remembered. 
The flower and chivalry of all Europe, inspired as no men before 
or since have been, by knightly spirit and rehgious fervor, sus- 
tained by the wealth of all Christendom, had been forced back, 
broken, and overwhelmed by the sheer force of numbers, and the 
Saracen held the spot where the holy sepulchre stood. These 
hordes, still more numerous than ever and still advancing, stood 
guard forbiddingly over every approach. 

By land or sea, however, the East and the West were bound to 
meet. While the sovereigns of Spain, step by step, were pushing 
the Moorish power from the peninsula, Portugal, free from all 
home trouble, was seeking a new sea-way to India. 

One member of the royal house, Prince Henry, — "Henry the 
Navigator," as history will know him, — gave his long Ufe and most 
of his fortune to find it. He confined his exploration to the west- 
ern coast of Africa, beheving that somewhere the land ended, and 
that by turning the point Asia was reached. He did not live to 
be sure that he was right. 

Slowly, for more than one hundred years, the venturesome little 
barks of Portugal sailed up and down that coast, never out of 
sight of land, if sight of land could be had, discovering or redis- 
covering cape after cape and island after island, and returning to 
report the wonders they had seen. 

But it was five years after Columbus kissed the sands of San 
Salvador that the prow of a European ship turned eastward from 
the Cape of Good Hope. 

While the princes and pilots of Portugal were employed in this 
experiment, cautiously feeling their way along the African coast, 
demonstrating at least how long it was, always praying it might 
somewhere and some time have an ending or turning point, the 
mariners and scholars of the rest of Httle Europe were think- 
ing. 

It was an age of intellectual motion as well as an age of strife. 
Gunpowder and movable types were two of its products. It may 
be true that the furrows in the fields of Europe were still turned by 
the Assyrian plough and smoothed by the harrow of log or tree- 
top, that the husbandman cut the ripe corn with the sickle and 
crushed the grain in the handmill. It may be true that, all things 
considered, kings and barons had less human comforts then than 
clerks or mechanics have to-day. 

The giant steam was to sleep yet three hundred years and the 
mysterious force, electricity, was reserved to have its infancy in 
our own day. 



254 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

But gunpowder and typography opened the way to all the higher 
fields of human speculation and adventure, revolutionized thought 
and swayed the future. All through that age, the wisest and most 
learned of men believed the world to be round, but as it never had 
been circumnavigated, no proof existed to satisfy the rest of 
mankind. 

Some held that it was practically level, land and sea ; that you 
could walk or ride or sail a very long distance, but if you went 
just too far, you and your ship or mule and all your belongings 
would fall off and spin into fathomless void. 

Others thought it was substantially level also, but gave it a 
square form and a roof Hke a tent. It was making strange use of 
the firmament to spread it over the world of the fifteenth century and 
use its star spaces for holes to let the rain come in. 

If learned men had theories, sailors had doubts and fears. The 
world might be round and yet only a part of it habitable. How 
could human beings walk inverted like flies on a ceiling; how 
could trees grow downward ; how could the world turn over every 
day and not spill out all its water? Puzzhng questions, surely, 
to which unapphed science could give no satisfactory answer. 

Among the practical men who thought that the world might be 
round and surely was not flat, for its convexity was patent from 
the deck of a fishing boat or the floor of a raft, there was a general 
dread of saiUng down the great incline. Easy enough to descend, 
but how could ever a ship sail up the mountain of water ? 

Then the open sea was shunned by all mariners. All their ships 
hugged the shore, kept land in sight constantly, ran into refuges 
when foul weather threatened, slowly and carefully went and 
came on every voyage. 

The sea has its perils now as well as then, but we know all its 
moods to-day. To the sailor of South Europe in the fifteenth 
century the open sea was a dreaded waste of waters. The ship 
that dared its passage was sure to disappear ; it was impious for 
man to attempt it. To what httle experience taught the imagina- 
tion of ages enormously added. Fiery skies that burned the mar- 
row in men's bones and opened the seams in ships, blazed on a 
sea that sometimes was putridly calm and was sometimes lashed 
mountains high. There were maelstroms that swallowed all mov- 
ing things except the frightful wind; dragons and monstrosities 
guarded its depths. 

The Mediterranean or South Atlantic sailor, condemned to a 
choice, would elect the galleys for Hfe rather than once venture 
upon that trackless sea of darkness and of death. Yet these were 
the men who were to be lured or forced to make the venture when 
the learned and the mighty were convinced that the ocean should 
be crossed at all. 



APPENDIX 255 

This was the task of conversion that Columbus set out to per- 
form, and these were the instruments he would be forced to employ. 
The best opinion of Europe was even in those doubtful days that 
the world was round, that a terrestrial law was still unrepealed, 
so that the planet could spin in space, men would not know they 
were standing feet upward half the day, trees would forget that they 
were growing downward, and the water would neglect to spill out. 

It followed from this that the Indies could be reached without 
finding a South Cape in Africa or wasting powder on Moor or 
Ottoman by sea or land. 

We and our Mayflower predecessors are probably indebted for 
existence here to a scientific miscalculation. It was a mental 
mismeasurement of the planet's girth. To the men who thought 
or knew that the world was round, it was a smaller world than it 
is. Asia was wider and the Atlantic narrower. By saihng west- 
ward from the Spanish coast the shores of Asia could be touched 
inside three thousand miles. Of the vast continent that holds in 
small space the greatest nation of the ages never the wisest knew. 

By saiUng due west the north cape of Cipango or Japan was 
sure to be struck ; but the existence of the intervening land was 
unsuspected and undreamed of. 

If Asia had been known to be twelve thousand miles away in- 
stead of three thousand in the fifteenth century, not one of us 
would probably be in Music Hall to-night. 

What there was of cosmographical learning, of nautical knowl- 
edge, of sailor's lore, Christopher Columbus had pondered, cross- 
examined, knew as the child knows his alphabet. But besides 
that knowledge, he had imagination, faith, courage, infinite patience, 
and an inflexible will, the quaUties to win favor and command men 
— all necessary for that mighty undertaking. 

When his mind was first made up, when he finally judged the 
voyage to be practicable, when his purpose was fixed, we shall 
never know. But that purpose once fixed the dread waste of 
waters was sure to be sailed, and a new world was to rise out of 
the deep. To the idea his life was henceforward consecrated. 
To him it meant fruitless debates with the world's scholars, re- 
buffs, and ingratitude from kings and senates, a long battle with 
old superstition, and detraction and contumely, the derision of 
children, poverty, and chains, a long, weary, painful, and miserable 
career; but to close at last in glory, in the supreme victory of the 
ages. 

The story of the great achievement and of the life of the man is 
written in school books, taught children on their mother's knees, 
told to eager ears in the remotest cabins in the wilderness. It is 
taught in all chmes and in all known languages; it is read and 
spoken and sung. 



256 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

The world resounds to-day with our hymn of praise and glad- 
ness and thanksgiving for the deed and the doer. No moral or 
mental pigmy can drag the great discovery down to the level of a 
vulgar accident, nor dwarf the great figure of the discoverer. 

The world will not suffer its great events to be degraded, nor 
be robbed of its heroes. The fame of the tall wanderer from 
Genoa is secure and eternal. His figure will stand erect and noble, 
compelling the homage of mankind, while the great world he 
presented to the smaller holds its place on the planet. 



CHAPTER VII 

Speech before the Harvard Democratic Club in Tremont Temple 
— Tributes to Cleveland and Russell — A Great Demonstra- 
tion — Denunciation of Henry Cabot Lodge's Force Bill. 

AS the great political campaign of 1892 was drawing 
to a close, the Harvard College Democratic Club 
held a monster meeting in Tremont Temple, Bos- 
ton, to give voice to the enthusiastic feelings of its mem- 
bers toward Grover Cleveland and Harvard's idol, Gov- 
ernor William E. Russell. The hall was large enough to 
accommodate not only that portion of the student body 
that gave its support and allegiance to Cleveland and 
Russell, but a large representation of the alumni of the 
university resident in eastern Massachusetts. Some few 
invited guests, not of the Harvard fold, were also there, but 
generally the meeting was distinctively a Harvard assemblage. 
Mr. Collins, who was a graduate of the Harvard law school, 
was honored by an invitation to preside, and this honor he 
accepted. When he appeared upon the platform he got an 
ovation from the students which would easily upset a less 
self-possessed man than he. Cheer after cheer rang through 
the vast hall and reverberated along the ceilings and gal- 
leries, punctured at intervals by the ''Rah, rah, rah's" of 
the students who were massed in the centre of the hall. 
When order was finally restored, he stepped to the front 
and in clear ringing tones delivered the following spirited 
address : — 

I am glad to be sufficiently identified with Harvard to justify 
my selection for this honorable post to-night. 

The contemptuous phrase, ''Harvard College and the slums," 
has become a classic. Like the term "mugwump," it sticks; it 
is naturalized and adopted. 

It was employed as a reproach by some Philistine, who was too 
ignorant to be a product of Harvard, and too purse-proud and 

257 



258 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

un-American to distinguish between the masses and the vicious, 
between poverty and crime, between ill-paid industry and moral 
degradation. 

A great man says that there are some human beings so con- 
stituted that they confound the radiance of the stars with the 
radiations made by a duck's foot in the mud. 

Regardless of its origin, we adopt the phrase as descriptive of 
the union of honest and patriotic men the most fortunate with 
honest and patriotic men the less fortunate, to better the condition 
of all our people, socially, materially, and poUtically. It is a 
healthy condition when the earnest thinkers and teachers make 
common cause with the tillers and toilers and taxpayers, with the 
industrious, the humble, and the lowly, to lift the social and in- 
dustrial hfe, to elevate political thought, to uphold the constitution 
and safeguard civil liberty. 

Such is our union and such our mission, — the college president 
and the working-man, the graduates of the university and the 
graduates of the lesser schools and of no schools at all, banded 
together to rid the American people of unjust and unnecessary 
taxation, to lift the load from bending labor, to bring the govern- 
ment back to constitutional moorings, to restore to our country 
a plain, honest, safe, and economical administration, to insure and 
preserve liberty — the largest of human blessings, — liberty regu- 
lated by law. 

I am here to-night, not because I am enamoured of the platform, 
for I am not; but because no good citizen should be speechless 
who thinks and feels and knows that his state has suffered wrong. 
The crimes of the last Congress and the part the Republican 
representatives from Massachusetts played in them, are neither 
forgotten nor forgiven. It was their fault, for they could have 
prevented it, that a tariff law was passed to pay monopoly the 
price agreed for its corrupt contribution to debauch the elections, 
and to add an extra weight to the load that is dragging labor down. 

Every dollar added to the tariff is a tax for the benefit of the 
rich, and is wrung from the thin hands of the poor. 

It was the fault of our Republican representatives, for they could 
have controlled it, that the plea and prayer of the starving indus- 
tries of Massachusetts for untaxed raw materials was contemptu- 
ously refused, that it was laughed to scorn by the plutocracy of 
Pennsylvania and Ohio. 

It was their fault, for they had the power to prevent it, that the 
currency was still further debased, and the mint compelled to 
stamp, or the printing-press to print, five times as many dishonest 
dollars as before. 

Nay, more, it was one of them who led the fight for inflation, 
and gloried in his shame; because he said it was "pure politics." 



APPENDIX 259 

It was their fault that the treasury was looted and the people 
plundered in order that the RepubUcan party might keep for once 
its promise to its masters and pay a corrupt poUtical debt. 

It was not their fault — for they did all they could — that the 
crowning infamy of all — the force bill — failed to become a law. 
If the boss of the Republican party of Massachusetts and his 
meek satelHtes had had their way then, the atrocity would be 
law to-day, and then a long good-by to peace in the South and 
free government in the Republic. 

If the more honest of them mistook a larger disease as a remedy 
for a supposed evil, the chief conspirator against liberty did not. 
He was too intelhgent in his mendacity, too cold-blooded in his 
calculations, to mistake the full meaning and effect of John Daven- 
port's infamous bill, to which he proudly tacked his own name as 
sponsor. 

But what to him was a universal breach of the peace or a race 
war in the South — the torch of hatred lit at the flames of the 
furies — if federal bayonets could menace every polling place, if 
Republican deputy marshals could spread awe and terror every- 
where, and a horde of reckless and desperate pohtical strikers, 
backed by the federal power, could count or miscount such votes 
as the people were permitted to cast. 

What matter to him if thereby the remnant of the Republican 
party, the minority then, and still more the minority now, of the 
American people, could hold the government in an iron grip and 
perpetuate its power indefinitely. 

Such was the meaning and purpose of that measure — call it 
force bill, or election bill, or what you will. Its passage would 
be the death knell of liberty ; the beginning of the end of govern- 
ment by all the people; the despotism of a faction buttressed by 
monopoly. 

The people of this Commonwealth passed judgment upon that 
Congress and its work two years ago, and there is no evidence that 
they have changed their minds. There is no evidence that they 
have any less common sense, intelUgence, knowledge, patriotism, 
or sensitiveness to their own interests than they had two years ago. 
The contrary is true, for the inteUigence of our people never stag- 
nates or recedes ; it grows in breadth and keenness, it sweeps a 
wider field and punctures sham and humbug more deftly and 
emphatically as time goes on. 

Two years ago the Old Bay State chose for her chief magistrate 
a man whose Democratic blood runs back through all the genera- 
tions to the time when our first great Democrat penned the charter 
of American liberty. 

Two years ago the state sent to Congress seven Democrats to 
plead her cause, to work for her interests, to uphold her honor. 



26o LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

In the other districts the Republicans barely escaped. The knightly 
Everett came very near piercing the throttle of the champion of the 
force bill. Let us hope this year that his lance will run him through. 
If it does, Harvard will go to the wake, and it won't be in the Senate 
chamber. We will chisel on his poUtical tombstone, "He meant 
murder and committed suicide." 

It has passed into a proverb that republics are ungrateful, that 
the people are heedless of the services rendered by their public 
men. However that may be of men and commonwealths gener- 
ally, I believe that Massachusetts appreciates and loves her sons 
when they are true to her interests and loyal to her honor. The 
peerless young man who sits in our highest place, this ideal gov- 
ernor, the son of Massachusetts and of Harvard, who has won the 
love and confidence of the whole Union, will not be rejected this 
year by the people of a commonwealth whose highest interests he 
has superbly served, whose fame he has broadened, and whose 
honor he has proudly guarded everywhere. 

If there is state pride left, Massachusetts is proud of William E. 
Russell. 

If our people are awake to their interests, as I firmly beUeve 
they are, if they are sensible of the dangers that threaten them, 
if they reaHze who sold "the pass" and who stood up for their 
rights, if they know friend from foe and statesman from trimmer, 
they will send back to Congress the faithful Democrats who serve 
them now, and reenforce them with equally faithful alUes. 

The issues are unchanged. The tariff is an issue, and it will 
remain one until some Congress decides that the people, and not 
a corrupt and favored class, shall write the schedules. When that 
day comes, Massachusetts, through her genuine representatives, 
will get fair play for her despised and insulted industries. Till 
then we must wait and work unceasingly ; till then Massachusetts, 
as ever, recognizes the questions as unsettled — Massachusetts 
recognizes no question settled until it is settled right. 

The silver question is an issue, and Massachusetts must trust to 
WilHams and his Democratic colleagues for its solution ; for he and 
they led the fight on the Unes of honest money, and neither gave 
nor took quarter when principles and sound finance were at stake. 

The force bill is an issue, and, perhaps, the supreme issue of 
all. It means personal and civil hberty or the loss of it ; it means 
the preservation of our system of free government or its substantial 
destruction. 

Liberty itself, the thing that men in all the ages have fought 
and died for, the want of which makes the smallest wood bird 
pine and die in the gilded cage, the liberty to speak and vote and 
have the vote counted, unawed and uncontrolled by federal bayonets 
or partisan mercenaries, is deeply involved in this campaign. 



APPENDIX 261 

Liberty has given the American the dignity he has among 
men ; liberty has given this great RepubHc the rank it holds in the 
world. 

Restrict it, hedge it about, bind it with artificial bonds, make 
its exercise dependent upon the caprice of a class or a party, and 
you enfeeble the American man and the American nation. 

Take it away and you make revolution a virtue, a necessity 
and a duty. 

But in cold blood the RepubUcan leaders say, "Give us the 
counting of the ballots and we care not who casts the votes." 
This is the plain meaning of the force bill, and the people may 
take it or leave it as they please. 

It is true that Republican orators and RepubUcan papers are 
silent on this subject, or if they speak at all, they announce that 
it is not before the people. AU the more dangerous is its suppres- 
sion. 

It was not before the people in 1888. If it had i»een in the 
Republican program then, if it had been discussed and under- 
stood, if its enormity had been known, Benjamin Harrison would 
have been practising law in Indiana ever since. No one then 
dreamed that such an atrocity would be attempted ; but Reed's 
House of Representatives promptly pushed it through. 

The danger exists to-day as it did then, but we have the ad- 
vantage of knowing it and meeting it. 

Harrison may try to slur it over in his letter. Lodge may try to 
sneak into Congress in silence concerning it, all the big and little 
candidates may ignore it, but the force bill nevertheless is the main 
reliance of the RepubUcan party to extend its existence, and to 
govern as it pleases the people of this country indefinitely. 

''Pass the force biU," says Whitelaw Reid, now the RepubUcan 
candidate for Vice-President, "and you can pass a hundred tariff 
biUs if you want to." 

This is the key that opens the door to the whole RepubUcan 
program. Pass the force bill, and the American people are 
prostrate at the feet of RepubUcanism and monopoly. 

Does any sane man doubt that if Harrison and a RepubUcan 
Congress should be elected this fall, the force bill would be one 
of the first measures passed and approved? As surely as the 
sun rises and sets, that is the RepubUcan plan and program, — 
secret, sinister, and revolutionary. 

The RepubUcan hope of success this year is in the concealment 
or misrepresentation of their true program and poUcy, and in 
successfully debauching enough of the voters of the closer states 
to win their electoral votes. 

This is the plain, naked, simple, vulgar fact. 

The money is akeady subscribed to buy the election, if it can 



262 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

be bought; it is shamelessly avowed and even gloried in by the 
present leaders of the RepubUcan party. 

Sixteen years ago they stole the presidency, four years ago they 
bought it. Often they wheedled the people by false issues and 
false pretences into their support, but their day for that is done 
forever. All their cards have been played once, and their hand 
has been fully seen. 

They can neither beg nor bully nor buy nor steal the electoral 
votes of New York and Indiana this year of grace. 

The foremost living American, Grover Cleveland, will sit in 
the highest place once more. The splendid work begun by him 
in his first administration will be forwarded and finished in the 
next. 

With a Democratic Senate as well as a Democratic House, 
tariff reform will come, and the wrongs of Massachusetts will be 
righted. 

We shall have a government of all the people, by all the people, 
and for all the people — special favors to no man or class of men. 

Let the freemen of Massachusetts, interested more than all 
others in the Union, do their part and share in the glory as well as 
the fruits of the victory. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Jeffersonian Democracy defined and analyzed — What it means 
TO the Republic — A Magnificent Exposition of the Principles 
OF Jefferson as compared with those of Hamilton. 

AT a dinner given by the Democratic Club of Massa- 
chusetts in 1890, Mr. Collins spoke after Mr. William 
L. Wilson of Virginia, the leader of the House of 
Representatives. His address was as follows : — 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — Our friend from West Vir- 
ginia is almost as difficult to follow as he is delightful to listen to. 

Whether he discusses the tariff, education, the most modem 
and extraordinary application of parliamentary law, or political 
questions in general, he covers the whole ground, and leaves his 
audience instructed and delighted. 

Our club is to be congratulated in having him as its guest on any 
occasion, and especially on this, to tell us of his fellow- Virginian, 
whose birthplace and home and grave are in the hills just south of 
where his own cradle was rocked. 

As Democrats, it is our proud privilege to claim kinship with the 
great Virginian ; for he was the father of our party. He builded 
"not better than he knew," for he clearly saw into the future. He 
announced the principles by which a great people could protect 
their liberties and govern themselves without the aid of kings or 
aristocracy, pursuing the arts of peace and reaping the rewards of 
commerce, and by the very fact that all the people were self- 
governing, and the states were sovereign within their sphere, 
defying foreign interference. It is sometimes proposed to erect 
a monument to his memory in the public square of some great 
American city, and it is sometimes made a reproach that such 
monuments do not exist. 

But the University of Virginia, the statutes of the Old Dominion 
establishing freedom of conscience and the abolition of entail, the 
work of Jefferson, do exist. The sublime Declaration of American 
Independence, penned by his hand, lives in every language read 
by man ; and the Democratic party, whose founder he was, stands 
as a monument that will endure till the last pillar of the Republic 
crumbles. 

263 



264 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

These are the monuments that perpetuate the memory of 
Thomas Jefferson, and you can look at no other civic figure inhuman 
history whose fame less needs a monument of stone or bronze. 

Washington called two phenomenal men into his Cabinet, — 
Jefferson and Hamilton. The independence of the people was 
won, but the Repubhc lacked form, cohesion, working rules, 
machinery. In that small consultation room of Washington the 
political parties of the United States were born, and Jefferson and 
Hamilton were their founders and chiefs. Hamilton had the 
rarest genius for organization and administration, the most pro- 
found and practical mind for the machinery of government, that 
the English people have ever known. 

I do not except Gladstone or Pitt or Walpole, or the first-class 
men of EHzabeth's day; for great as they were, in the special 
line of construction, Hamilton surpassed them all. 

Vast and complex as the treasury of the United States is to-day, 
one of Hamilton's head clerks could step in and run it without fric- 
tion. He created it substantially as it is : all that has been added 
in detail and expansion he provided for at the start. This is high 
praise, perhaps, from a Democrat to the great Federalist. But I 
feel, as I have always felt, that Alexander Hamilton was one of 
the three or four very great men produced by the Repubhc, and 
that in many respects he stood first. 

But he lacked, radically and fatally lacked, sympathy with the 
people; he had no touch with the mass that had come or was to 
come ; he did not know or beheve in the people, — it was a mere 
mob to him and his, — and the people did not beheve in him. He 
had a bhnd admiration for the English model, not as it exists to-day, 
modified by the hammerings of Democracy, but as it existed then, 
in all its cold cruelty to the masses ; and he had a constitutional 
distrust of the capacity of his own countrymen for self-government. 
He wanted a system framed, not to protect liberty, but to keep it 
in check ; not to insure, but to minimize, home rule in communities. 
He wanted a "strong government," a paternal government, con- 
ducted by a privileged class. It was pure Toryism, minus a 
king. 

Jefferson saw no standing room for man between a monarchy 
and universal suffrage. The logic of Uberty carried him to imphcit 
faith and supreme trust in the honesty, justice, and wisdom of all 
the people. If all could not be trusted when all were equally con- 
cerned, could one man or set of men? He contended for the 
largest individual Hberty, for the freedom of the home from inva- 
sion by Church or State, for the complete sovereignty of the State 
within its sphere; and he recognized only so much power in the 
federal government as could be found plainly written in the Con- 
stitution, — the power of attorney from the states to Congress. 



APPENDIX 265 

Is it not safer to insist upon a strict construction of the Con- 
stitution, the plainly delegated powers, as we do in all other solemn 
instruments, rather than allow an always hungry and sometimes 
reckless majority in Congress to construe it from time to time as 
they please? 

Jefferson fully understood the temper, character, and wants of 
the American people. He profoundly trusted them in the mass; 
and they in turn, after years of patient waiting on his part, gave 
him their overwhelming confidence. These two great chiefs of 
Washington's Cabinet created their parties. But how short was 
the hfe of Hamilton's ! 

It was built upon the sand, and was blown to atoms by the first 
popular gale. It was aUen to the people. Long after its wreck 
Hamilton pathetically wrote, "Every day proves to me more and 
more that this American world was not made for me." 

It was the wail of a great man "born out of his time," who 
could not understand his age or his country. 

The American world, born of the Revolution, was and is, not 
the America of Hamilton and Pickering and Rufus King, but the 
America of Jefferson and Sam Adams, of FrankUn and Patrick 
Henry. 

The young hfe of Alexander Hamilton, brave and chivalrous, 
great, but mistaken, soon after ended in a pool of blood on Jersey 
sands ; while long, long after, full of honors and years serene and 
beautiful, his party as firmly set as the RepubHc itself, the life of 
Thomas Jefferson ended on the Virginia heights he loved so well. 
Dying here the same day exactly fifty years after the signing of 
the Declaration of Independence, not knowing that his compatriot, 
and sometimes rival, was also passing away, John Adams pro- 
phetically said, "I die, but Jefferson still survives." Jefferson 
did survive. All that was mortal passed from the sight of men, 
and the mysterious spirit sped to its home. 

But the Jefferson that belongs not to the dust nor is summoned 
to the spirit land, indeed a third Jefferson, the work of both on 
earth, abides with us forever. 

Jefferson fives in the subhme Declaration of Independence, in 
the gospel of Democracy, the creed of the greatest poKtical party 
that ever existed on earth, and in the example that all just men 
must admire, of a pure, simple hfe, the loftiest patriotism, and a 
long career devoted to the welfare of his country. 

It is true that not all the men who act with the Democratic 
party practise his precepts and follow his example. Sonie follow 
strange poHtical gods, and give strange votes for Blair bills, sub- 
sidies, and tariffs for monopoHes. But the Church stands, though 
some of the flock sin ; and the party creed endures, though some 
members are not orthodox. A warmed-over Federahst will never 



266 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

make a Democrat. The most you can do is to take the chill out 
of him. 

But the Democratic party in the mass stands, in principle and 
in action, where Thomas Jefferson left it. It stands in the broadest 
sense for the Uberty of the individual in all his movements, and 
resists all fancies that men can be broken to a common mould; 
it stands for the sanctity of the home and the independence of the 
family against all doctrinaires and meddlers; it stands for the 
sovereignty of the state in all its reserved pov^er; it stands for 
taxation, however raised, limited to the expenses of government 
economically conducted; and it stands for a hearty, brotherly 
union of all our people in a federal system for common defence. 
Jefferson had his limitations. He was human. He never could 
understand how people could get rich by being taxed for the 
immediate benefit of others, or why people doing business at a 
loss should be helped to a profit out of the pockets of their neigh- 
bors ; he could not understand how men could be freer or happier 
when governed by a "superior order of beings" instead of gov- 
erning themselves; he could not understand how citizens could 
vote more intelligently and honestly with the assistance of troops 
at the polls ; and he died in dense ignorance of the kind of magic 
possessed by the thing we call government to cure all human ills. 
In these enlightened days there are people who affect to under- 
stand and believe all these things; but they are not Democrats, 
and never will be, until they are born again. 

The Democracy of Jefferson broke the bounds of this continent. 

He had pity for all in trouble. He had a sympathy and a fellow- 
ship for the oppressed in all lands. He was five years in France, 
and in the lurid light of that bloody Revolution so different from 
our own. Yet it never disturbed for a moment the poise of his 
mind. He saw cause as well as effect. The American Revolu- 
tion was a growth; the French Revolution was an explosion. 
One was the assertion by a people of rights and liberties that they 
were taught had always belonged to them : the other was a revolt 
of a people deprived of all rights for centuries by a small privi- 
leged class. 

Said the regicide in "Les Mis^rables" to his visitor: "Ah, 
there you are, '93 ! A cloud had been gathering in Europe for 
fourteen hundred years. It burst. You blame the thunderbolt." 
Jefferson as calmly surveyed the scene as he would a thunder- 
storm, and felt that mankind would be better after it. He never 
blamed the thunderbolt. 

, He has been censured for his failure to denounce the excesses of 
the French Revolution, as Burke did in his "Reflections." But 
Burke's best friend would blot that out to-day if he could; and 
Jefferson felt that kings had all the apologists and eulogists that 



APPENDIX 267 

they needed on this earth, and the "Children of the People" too 
few friends. He wisely let the French Revolution stand for what 
it gave to and took from the sum of human progress, and the sub- 
tracted matter is now out of sight. He wanted all men to be free ; 
and he saw their emancipation, and hailed it, through whatever 
strife or excess necessity forced. 

On a bright and beautiful morning, the 4th of March, 1885, it 
was my privilege to distribute two tickets for the inauguration 
ceremonies. 

It was the first time in twenty-four years that a Jeffersonian 
Democrat had the privilege (though one before had the right) to 
take the oath as President. 

I handed one ticket to the mother of Charles Stewart Parnell, 
and the other to the youngest descendant of Thomas Jeflferson. 

They came and went together, — both Democrats. 

I thought how strange and happy a conjunction it was. 

The patriotism of two continents ! 

The son of that woman was leading his countrymen over a dark 
and rough path to self-government and prosperity; and the torch 
that guided his steps was lit by the great-grandfather of the boy. 



CHAPTER IX 

Mr. Collins seconds the Nomination of Grover Cleveland at 
Chicago in 1892, in a Very Brief but Effective Speech — He 

PRESENTS the NAME OF RiCHARD OlNEY AT THE ST. LOUIS CON- 
VENTION IN 1904. 

WHEN the delegates from Massachusetts to the Chi- 
cago convention were chosen in 1892, Mr. ColKns's 
name " led all the rest." His prestige as chairman 
of the St. Louis convention four years before placed him 
among the small group of national leaders in whose care the 
interests of the party were placed, by common consent. The 
feeling against Cleveland among the active politicians was 
still very strong, while the men of larger caliber and wider 
view saw in the ex-President the only hope of success at 
the polls. When Mr. Collins arrived at Chicago he was in- 
vited into a conference of the national leaders, among and 
by whom William C. Whitney of New York was recognized 
as the personal representative of Mr. Cleveland. It was de- 
cided then and there to organize a committee to meet in-com- 
ing delegations and impress upon them the value of Cleveland's 
name and fame as a factor in the approaching canvass. 
The active politicians were favorable to David Bennett Hill, 
because they saw in his elevation a better recognition of party 
service than could be expected from Mr. Cleveland, who still 
clung tenaciously to his civil service reform ideas. Then the 
Tammany forces were very active and very noisy, and on the 
outside the Hill sentiment was very pronounced. But the 
Whitney headquarters kept busy, and recruits began to pour 
in from all sections of the country. Mr. Collins had quar- 
ters of his own, and thither went some of the most influential 
Democrats of the nation for counsel and guidance. After 
two days of missionary work the adherents of Mr. Cleveland 
had a majority of the delegates convinced, and all that was 
needed was to hold the forces in line and to guard against 
surprises and stampedes. 

268 



APPENDIX 269 

The story of that convention is a story of adroit manage- 
ment, magnificent strategy, and brilHant achievements in 
parhamentary tactics. A ballot was forced in the early morn- 
ing v^hile the Cleveland forces were in fine array, and when 
the opposition manoeuvred for one more day's delay. It was 
while the excitement over the struggle for postponement was 
at its height that the nominating speeches were launched 
and the forces of the contending camps were finally aligned 
for the supreme test of strength. Along in the morning 
hours Mr. Collins was recognized to second Cleveland's 
nomination. The convention was restless, even turbulent 
at times, and the occupants of the galleries were exasperating 
in their interference with the proceedings. But when Mr. 
Collins arose he was given a hearing. His voice was in fine 
condition and his words rang clear and resonant through the 
rafters of the building. After the close of his short speech 
and after Cleveland's nomination, he was going out with the 
crowd when an admirer congratulated him upon his fine 
effort and especially upon the perfect condition of his voice. 
"Why," he said, ''I was well back in the hall, near the 
rear doors, and I could hear every word. distinctly." Mr. 
Collins looked at him quizzically and replied, "You must 
not believe everything you hear." His speech was as fol- 
lows : — 

I belong to that class of Democrats, fortunately large, who are 
for and not against some other Democrat. (Cheers.) I am a con- 
structionist, not a destroyer. I believe that every state in the Union 
contains at least one Democrat fit to be President of the United 
States, and I deplore the malignity with which certain eminent 
gentlemen, not very far from the state of New York, have been 
hounded and misrepresented by the fool friends of other people. 
(Cheers.) As I say, I believe that every state has at least one man 
large enough — including my own state (cheers and cries of 
"Russell") — large enough to be President of the United States, 
but there stands forward one man, taller than all the rest. (Great 
cheering.) You may examine the sentiment and analyze the rea- 
son, and reject it because you cannot solve it, because it eludes 
analysis ; and yet stronger than any other man in this or any pre- 
ceding generation, and in the hearts of the Democracy of this coun- 
try, is the name and the fame of Grover Cleveland. (Long-con- 
tinued cheering.) 



270 LIFE OF PATRICK A. COLLINS 

When Mr. Collins consented in 1904 to leave his arduous 
duties as mayor and go to St. Louis as a delegate-at-large 
to the national convention he was placed at the head of the 
Massachusetts forces. There was a strong sentiment in the 
state in favor of Richard Olney as the party's candidate. 
The political sentiment of the old-line leaders crystallized very 
rapidly around him. Mr. Collins was a friend of Mr. Olney, 
and they had several conferences on the subject. Mr. 
Olney did not believe that there was any possibility of his 
nomination, but he hesitated to discourage the movement 
in his behalf lest such action might lead to demoralization. 
But he wrote a letter withdrawing from the contest and gave 
it to Mr. Collins to be used, in his discretion, whenever 
its publication might be considered opportune. In a word, 
he placed his name and his political fortunes in Mr. Collins' s 
keeping. In St. Louis it was decided at the last moment 
that Mr. Olney' s name should be presented to the convention 
and Mr. Collins was, of course, the chosen medium through 
whom this presentation was to be made. As in Chicago 
in 1892 his speech was brief, pointed, and effective, and it 
was heard respectfully and cheered to the echo throughout. 
Below is printed what he said : — 

Massachusetts has the honor to present the name of her most 
distinguished son, her most eminent statesman, her foremost 
Democrat, — Richard Olney. We do not name him as a mere 
citizen of Massachusetts, but as a citizen of the United States of 
America. We do not claim him as exclusively our own, for he 
belongs to the great militant Democracy of the whole Union. 
He is yours as well as ours. 

I am aware of the tradition, the contention, and the claim that 
only states whose electoral votes are in doubt should venture to 
present a candidate. But while the country is divided into states 
for administrative purposes and conveniences we are still one 
people, and above all no surveyor's line divides the Democracy 
into sections. A Massachusetts Democrat is as good as the 
best in New York or Texas or Missouri. 

The Democrats of the Union are entitled to nominate their 
strongest man wherever his cradle was rocked, and the people of 
the Republic are entitled to their choice regardless of the domicile 
of their candidates. Under the narrow rule Jefferson and Jackson 
and other great Democrats who shed lustre on the presidency 
would have been denied room, and the country would have been 
robbed of their services had they lived in Oregon or Massachusetts. 



APPENDIX 271 

When all is said and done, Democrats vote the Democratic ticket, 
no matter where their candidate lives. 

Gentlemen of the Convention, break the old tradition now and 
come to Massachusetts. We do not introduce Mr. Olney to this 
convention, to this country, or to the world. He has written his 
name in imperishable characters in the annals of the RepubHc, 
and no history of international relations will ever be printed without 
a shining page for Richard Olney. If nominated, he can be 
elected, for the country wants a steady hand like his to steer the 
ship of state to the safe anchorage of the Constitution, and when 
elected he can write his name high on the scroll which bears only 
the names of men who have been supremely useful to this free 
people. 



INDEX 



Abbott, Josiah G., 37, 84, 91, 103. 
Adams, Charles Francis, 26, 39, 41, 43, 

44. 
Adams, John Quincy, 37, 39, 91, loi. 
Advertiser, Boston, 176. 
Aguinaldo, 153. 
Alabama claims, 42. 
Albany, 40, 87, 98. 
American, Boston, 175. 
Ancient and Honorable Artillery Co., 

124. 
"Angel Gabriel," 11, 12. 
Argus, Albany, 89, 97, 98. 
Arnold, Benedict, 45. 
Australia, 5. 
Avery, Edward, 91, 95. 
Avoca, 52. 
Avondale, 52. 

B 

Babson, Thomas M., 193, 195. 

Baldwin, John E., 200. 

Ballinafauna, i, 5. 

Bar Association, 188, 193. 

Barnum, William H., 109. 

Barr, Robert, 119. 

Barry, John, 120. 

Bartlett, Charles W., 212. 

Bartlett, E. B., 160. 

Bates, John L., 136, 153, 170. 

Bayard, Thomas F., 30, 64, 83, 121, 

122. 
Beach, Sir Michael Hicks, 48, 52. 
Belfast, 62. 

Bennett, James Gordon, 58. 
Biggar, Joseph Gillis, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 

54- 
Bissel, Wilson S., 115. 
Blaine, James G., 24, 38, 82, 93, 223, 

226, 229. 
Blouet, Paul, 119, 121. 
Bolton, Fred. E., 158. 
Bonaparte, Charles J., 170. 



Bonaparte, Napoleon, 220. 

Boyne River, 6. 

Briggs, George N., 8. 

Bryan, William J., 147. 

Burns, Robert, 209. 

Butler, Benjamin F., 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 

95- 
Butler, Peter, 104. 
Butt, Sir Isaac, 46, 47, 48, 50. 
Byrne, Very Rev. William, 164. 



Canada, 4. 

Carleton, James H., 91, 102. 
Carlisle, John G., 72, 84. 
Castlereagh, Lord, 7. 
Cecil, Hotel, 123.. 
Chandler, William E., 35, 92, 105. 
Chelsea, 8, 9, 11, 12, 14, 196. 
Churchill, Lord Randolph, 52. 
Civil War, 8, 19, 41, 148, 241. 
Clark, Rev. Francis E., 170. 
Cleveland, Grover, 78, 79, 80, 83, 84, 85, 
87, 88, 91, 92, 97, 100, 103, 104, 105, 
108, no. III, 112, 114, 123, 161, 175, 
178, 189, 222, 223, 224, 225, 226, 229, 
230. 234, 235, 257, 262, 268, 269. 
Cockrell, Senator, 164, 241, 242. 
Collins, Bartholomew, r, 3. 

Collins, John J., 62, 156. 

Collins Memorial, 182. 

Collins, Paul, 156. 

Commercial, Buffalo, New York, 180. 

Congress, 38, 69, 70, 76, 118, 145, 173, 
244. 

Copps Hill, 141. 

Corcoran, Michael, 17. 

Cork, 2, 63. 

Coveney, Jeremiah W., 12. 

Co.x, Samuel S., 71. 

Crane, Winthrop M., 136, 137, 159. 

Crocker, George U., 160. 

Croke, Most Rev. T. W., 58. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 6. 

Cuba, 146, 148, 149, 152. 

273 



2 74 



INDEX 



Curtin, Jeremiah, 119. 
Curtis, Edwin U., 159. 

D 

Daly, Augustin, 121. 

Daly, Augustine J., 159. 

Dana, Charles A., 121, 122. 

Davitt, Michael, 4, 56, 59. 

De Kalb, 44, 219. 

Denbigh, The Earl of, 124. 

DevUn, John E., 226, 227. 

Devlin, Joseph, 162. 

Dewey, Admiral, 151. 

Dillon, John, 162. 

Dock Trust, 140. 

Doheny, Michael, 16. 

Dolan, Arthur W., 160. 

Donahoe, Patrick, 210. 

Donovan, James, 156, 159. 

Douglas, William L., 136, 137, 159, 163, 

214. 
Dubhn, 20, 26, 60, 61, 62, 65, 244. 
Duffy, Charles Gavan, 16. 
Dwyer, Michael J., 202. 

E 

Eagle, Brooklyn, 179. 
Edson, Franklin, 224. 
Emmett, Robert, 8. 
Endicott, William C, 102. 
England, 4, 8, 22, 39, 55. 



Faneuil Hall, 141, 217, 21 8. 
Fenian, 4, 43. 

Fenian Brotherhood, 17, 18, 20, 25. 
Finerty, John F., 163. 
Fitzgerald, Lord Edward, 8. 
Fitzgerald, William T. A., 159. 
Fitzpatrick, Thomas B., 160. 
Fleischer, Rabbi Charles, 207. 
Frederic, Harold, 121. 
Fuller, Melville W., 81. 



Gage, Lyman J., 147. 
Garfield, James A., 80, 82. 
Gargan, Thomas J., 160, 202, 207. 
Gaston, William, 36, 37, 40. 
Gaston, WiUiam A., 159, 164. 
Germanic museum, 133. 
Gill, George W., 102. 
Gladstone, Herbert, 50, 108. 
Gladstone, William E., 36, 37, 40, 264. 



Globe, Boston, ir, 172. 
Gordon, Lord George, 10. 
Graham, John M., 160. 
Granary Burying Ground, 141. 
Grant, Ulysses S., 37, 82. 
Green, Samuel A., 159, 163. 
Griffin, Patrick F., 160. 
Guild, Curtis, Jr., 214. 

H 

Hamlin, Charles S., 168. 

Harris, Francis A., 127. 

Hart, Thomas N., 131, 159, 170. 

Harte, Bret, 119, 127. 

Hayes, Rutherford B., 39, 45. 

Healy, T. M., 49, 120. 

" Hedge School," 7. 

Hemenway, Alfred, 188. 

Hendricks, Thomas A., 74, 85, 222, 223. 

Henry, Prince of Prussia, 133. 

Henson, Rev. P. S., 170. 

Herald, Boston, 68, 109, 174. 

Herald, Fall River, 180. 

Hewitt, Abram S., 103. 

Hibbard, George A., 162. 

Higginson, Henry L., 159. 

Hill, David B., 165, 268. 

Hoar, George F., 74. 

Hoguet, Henry L., 227. 

Holmes, F. M., & Co., 12. 

Home Rule, 47. 

Horton, Rev. E. A., 171. 

Hot Springs, 155, 178. 

House of Commons, 4. 

Hunt, William H., 35. 



Ivory, Edward J., 28, 29, 30, 31. 

J 

Jefferson, Thomas, 231, 232, 263, 264, 

265, 266, 267. 
Johnson, Rev. Herbert S., 165. 
Jones, Jerome, 76, 77, 160, 167. 
Journal, Boston, 117, 176. 
Journal, Freetnan's (Dublin), 181. 
Journal, Providence (Rhode Island), 176. 
Judd, Max, 126. 

K 

Keith, James M., 32, 33. 

Kennedy, Patrick J., 160. 

Kernan, John D., 227. 

Kerr, Michael C, 38. 

Knickerbocker, Albany, New York, 178. 

Know-nothingism, 9, 44, 228. 



INDEX 



275 



Lafayette, Count, 44, 218, 219. 

Lamont, Daniel S., 98, 114. 

Land League, 4, 56, 59, 115, 173. 

Lawrence, Right Rev. William, 214. 

Lawson, Thomas W., 164. 

Leahy, John P., 191. 

Lee, Charles, 44. 

Legion of Honor, 214. 

Limerick, i. 

Lipton, Sir Thomas, 166, 167. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, 169. 

Long, John D., 168, 190. 

Luby, Thomas Clarke, 18, 20. 

M 

Macdonald, Edmund A., 160. 
MacVeagh, Wayne, 93. 
Mail, Lowell, 178. 
Manning, Daniel, 227. 
Marble, Manton, 103. 
Martin, John, 51. 
Martin, John B., 160. 
Matthews, Nathan, 130, 165, 249. 
McCall, John A., 227. 
McCarthy, Justin, 120, 121, 122. 
McClellan, George B., 169. 
McElveen, Rev. W. T., 171. 
Mclntyre, John F., 27, 28. 
McKinley, William, 146, 148, 152. 
McLoughlin, George T., 62. 
McVey, A. G., 167. 
Meagher, Thomas Francis, 16. 
Meany, Stephen Joseph, 25, 41. 
Minton, John M., 160. 
Mitchel, John, 16, 244. 
Mitchell, J. Alfred, 160. 
" Monk, Maria," 10. 
Monroe Doctrine, 146, 150. 
Montgomery, Lewis M., 121. 
Morris, Robert, 12. 
Morrison, W. R., 72, 74. 
Morse, Jacob, 125. 
Morse, Leopold, 34, 35. 
Mount-Cashell, Lord, i. 
Mulcahy, James, 160. 
Murtha, William H., 228. 

N 

National Dock Trust, 140. 

News, Charlotte (South Carolina), 180. 

News, Woonsocket (Rhode Island), 178. 

Noble, Reuben, 91, 102. 

Noonan, John F., 160. 



O'Brien, Hugh, 130. 

O'Brien, William, 46. 

O'Brien, William Smith, 16. 

O'Callaghan, Monsignor, 169. 

O'Connor, Arthur, 126. 

O'Connell, Daniel, i, 2, 5, 7, 16, 47. 

O'Connor, T. P., 119, 121. 

O'Driscoll, Florence, 126. 

Old South, 141. 

Olney, Richard, 28, loi, 159, 214, 270, 

271. 
O'Mahony, John, 16, 20, 21. 
O'Reilly, John Boyle, 59, 65, 103, 161, 

210, 211. 



Parnell, Charles Stewart, 4, 48, 51, 52, 

53. 54, 56, 60, 61, 62, 173, 267. 
Parnell, John Henry, 53, 54. 
Peel, Sir Robert, 2. 
Perrin, Rev. G. L., 171. 
Perry, Edwin A., 109. 
Phelps, Edward J., 80. 
Philippine Islands, 149, 150, 152. 
Phillips, Wendell, 5, 67, 239. 
Pierce, Franklin, 99. 
Polk, James K., 8. 
Porter, Horace, 86. 
Post, Boston, 174. 

Post, Pittsburg (Pennsylvania), 181. 
Prince, Frederick O., 37, 91. 
Pritchett, Henry S., 212. 
Puerto Rico, 149, 152. 
Pulaski, 44. 
Pulitzer, Joseph, 108, 109. 



Quincy, Josiah, 8, 119, 130, 159, 169. 
R 

Randall, Samuel J., 72. 

Record, Boston, 117, 179. 

Redmond, John, 162. 

Redmond, William H. K., 159, 168. 

Republican, Keene (New Hampshire), 

177. 
Richardson, James B., 193, 195. 
Robinson, George D., 91. 
Rochambeau, Count, 135, 219. 
Rockhill, William W., 30, 31. 
Ronan, Rev. Peter, 200. 
Roosevelt, James B., 2q, 30. 
Roosevelt, Theodore, 190. 
Rossa, O'Donovan, 19, 20. 



276 



INDEX 



Russell, Lord John, 16. 

Russell, William E., iii, 257, 269. 



Saltonstall, Leverett, 104, 105, 106. 

Savage Club, 125. 

Savage, John, 16. 

Savage, Rev. Minot J., 117. 

Shanahan, James, 227. 

Shuman, A., 160, 167. 

Smalley, George, 124. 

Smith, Ballard, 119. 

Star, Washington (D.C.), 177. 

Stearns, George M., 103. 

Stephens, James, 19, 20. 

Sterne, Simon, 224. 

Steuben, 44, 219. 

Stratton, Charles E., 159. 

Sullivan, T. D., 62, 120. 

Switzerland, 125. 



Taft, William H., 153. 

Talbot, Thomas, 37. 

Taylor, Charles H., 159, 209. 

Thayer, John R., 159. 

Thayer, Walter N., 225. 

Thurman, Allen G., 83. 

Tilden, Samuel J., 38, 39, 40, 45, 222. 

Times, Minneapolis, 179. 

Tobin, Lieut. John A., 160. 

Tone, Wolfe, 8. 

Transcript, Boston, 175. 

Transvaal, 153. 



Tribune, New York, 229. 
Tucker, J. Randolph, 71. 
Tuttle, Lucius, 170. 

U 

Underwood, Francis H., 127. 

United States, 3, 4, 9, 10, 150, 173, 174, 

176. 
Ursuline Convent, 10. 

V 

Vilas, William F., 168. 

. W 

Wales, Prince of, 49, 50. 

Walsh, Rev. Nicholas R., 160. 

Warren, Winslow, 188. 

Washington, George, 219. 

Waterford, i. 

Watterson, Henry, 79, 162. 

Wellington, Duke of, 2. 

Wells, Benjamin W., 160. 

Wharf Trust, 139. 

Whelton, Daniel A., 157, 158, 159, 200, 

2or. 
Whitney, Henry M., 154. 
Whitney, WiUiam C, 114, 241, 268. 
WiUiams, Most Rev. John J., 159. 
Wilson, Henry, 27. 
Wilson, William L., 127, 263. 
Wolff, James H., 210. 
Wood, Fernando, 26, 27. 
Woodbury, Charles Levi, 37, 91. 
World, New York, 108, 109. 



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